Allen K C Chan 陈君赐
Professor of Chemical Pathology 化学病理学讲座教授

allen@cuhk.edu.hk


Biography
Professor Chan joined the department in 2001 as an Assistant Professor and is currently appointed as Professor. He received his medical training from the University of Hong Kong and PhD training from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also a member of the Royal College of Physicians and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and Hong Kong College of Pathologists. He is member of the molecular diagnostics committee under the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) and a member of IFCC cancer genomics working group. He also served as the president of the Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry during 2011-12.


Allen's main research interest is on the development of innovative diagnostic approaches based on circulating DNA analysis. To date, he has published over 110 peer-reviewed publications and has over 150 patents covering different aspects of molecular diagnostics, including the methods for the noninvasive detection of Down syndrome through the analysis of the blood plasma of pregnant women. The Down syndrome test has been widely adopted as a routine clinical test globally with millions tests done every year.







Professor Chan developed a number of NGS-based approaches for the detection of cancer-derived mutations, copy number alterations and methylation aberrations in the plasma of cancer patients. He also led the first large-scale prospective study of using "liquid biopsy" to screen for early asymptomatic cancer. Through the screening of over 20,000 asymptomatic participants, he demonstrated that the detection of cancer-derived plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA could lead to the identification of nasopharyngeal carcinoma at significantly earlier stages compared with patients without undergoing screening. This work was selected as one of the ten notable article published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2017.






Allen is also an entrepreneur and he co-founded a number of biotechnology companies with Professors Dennis Lo and Rossa Chiu. One of his companies, Cirina, merged with Grail, a US-based company established by Illumina, the largest DNA sequencing system manufacturer in 2017. The merged entity is one of the most valuable companies in the field of liquid biopsy. In addition to research, Allen is also passionate about teaching and received a total of four Teacher of the Year awards from the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK.


Ten selected publications over the last 5 years:

Chan KCA, Woo JKS, King A, Zee BCY, Lam WKJ, Chan SL, Chu SWI, Mak C, Tse IOL, Leung SYM, Chan G, Hui EP, Ma BBY, Chiu RWK, Leung SF, van Hasselt AC, Chan ATC, Lo YMD. Analysis of Plasma Epstein-Barr Virus DNA to Screen for Nasopharyngeal Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(6):513-522.

Kim KY, Le QT, Yom SS, Pinsky BA, Bratman SV, Ng RH, El Mubarak HS, Chan KCA, Sander M, Conley BA. Current State of PCR-Based Epstein-Barr Virus DNA Testing for Nasopharyngeal Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2017;109(4).

Chan KCA, Jiang P, Sun K, Cheng YK, Tong YK, Cheng SH, Wong AI, Hudecova I, Leung TY, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Second generation noninvasive fetal genome analysis reveals de novo mutations, single-base parental inheritance, and preferred DNA ends. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016;113(50):E8159-E8168.

Park K, Yu CJ, Kim SW, Lin MC, Sriuranpong V, Tsai CM, Lee JS, Kang JH, Chan KCA, Perez-Moreno P, Button P, Ahn MJ, Mok T. First-Line Erlotinib Therapy Until and Beyond Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors Progression in Asian Patients With Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutation-Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: The ASPIRATION Study. JAMA Oncol. 2016;2(3):305-12.

Sun K*, Jiang P*, Chan KCA*, Wong J, Cheng YK, Liang RH, Chan WK, Ma ES, Chan SL, Cheng SH, Chan RW, Tong YK, Ng SS, Wong RS, Hui DS, Leung TN, Leung TY, Lai PB, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Plasma DNA tissue mapping by genome-wide methylation sequencing for noninvasive prenatal, cancer, and transplantation assessments. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(40):E5503-12. (*co-first authors)

Jiang P*, Chan CW*, Chan KCA*, Cheng SH, Wong J, Wong VW, Wong GL, Chan SL, Mok TS, Chan HL, Lai PB, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Lengthening and shortening of plasma DNA in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(11):E1317-25. (*co-first authors)

Yu SC*, Chan KCA*, Zheng YW*, Jiang P, Liao GJ, Sun H, Akolekar R, Leung TY, Go AT, van Vugt JM, Minekawa R, Oudejans CB, Nicolaides KH, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Size-based molecular diagnostics using plasma DNA for noninvasive prenatal testing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014;111(23):8583-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1406103111. (*co-first authors)

Chan KCA, Jiang P, Chan CW, Sun K, Wong J, Hui EP, Chan SL, Chan WC, Hui DS, Ng SS, Chan HL, Wong CS, Ma BB, Chan AT, Lai PB, Sun H, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Noninvasive detection of cancer-associated genome-wide hypomethylation and copy number aberrations by plasma DNA bisulfite sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2013;110(47):18761-8.

Le QT, Zhang Q, Cao H, Cheng AJ, Pinsky BA, Hong RL, Chang JT, Wang CW, Tsao KC, Lo YD, Lee N, Ang KK, Chan AT, Chan KCA. An international collaboration to harmonize the quantitative plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA assay for future biomarker-guided trials in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2013;19(8):2208-15.

Chan KCA, Jiang P, Zheng YW, Liao GJ, Sun H, Wong J, Siu SS, Chan WC, Chan SL, Chan AT, Lai PB, Chiu RW, Lo YM. Cancer genome scanning in plasma: detection of tumor-associated copy number aberrations, single- nucleotide variants, and tumoral heterogeneity by massively parallel sequencing. Clin Chem. 2013;59(1):211-24.