Professor CHAN Wan Yi, Renee
陈韵怡教授
Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics
Deputy Director, Hong Kong Hub of Paediatric Excellence
Co-Director, CUHK-UMCU Joint Research Laboratory of Respiratory Virus & Immunobiology
Investigator, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences

BSc (Hons), MPhil, PhD, Diploma (Epidemiology)

Research Team: Respiratory Viruses







BiographyRenee Chan is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also the Co-Director of the CUHK-UMCU Joint Research Laboratory of Respiratory Virus & Immunobiology, Department of Paediatrics, CUHK and the Deputy Director (Laboratory) of the CUHK – Hong Kong Hub of Paediatric Excellence (HK-HOPE). Prof. Chan obtained her PhD degree in the Department of Microbiology and Department of Pathology, The University of Hong Kong and had her post-doctoral fellow training in the Department of Pathology and Centre of Influenza Research, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong.


Prof. Chan’s research on ex vivo organ cultures of human respiratory tract has been world-leading and led to major publications in high impact journals. She is among one of the few research groups worldwide that can routinely utilize ex vivo cultures of human respiratory tissues for phenotypic characterization and risk assessments. This is now included in the WHO “Tool for Influenza Pandemic Risk Assessment”.


Prof. Chan has conducted research work in multiple pandemics, SARS-CoV, pandemic H1N1/09, sporadic outbreaks of avian influenza/H5N1, H7N9, MERS-CoV and currently SARS-CoV-2. Her team derives age-group and disease-entity specific differentiated epithelial cell and organoid cultures, in collaboration with otorhinolaryngologists and cardiothoracic surgeons of CU Medicine and scientists in the University Medical Centre of Utrecht in the Netherlands.


To date, Prof. Chan has published over 70 peer-reviewed research articles and has received 10 full-grants as Principal-investigator from 2010 to 2020 (HK$ 8.97M) and more than 12 full-grants as Co-I, 2010 to 2021 (HK$ 22M). Prof..Chan has received a number of awards for her research, including the Young Scientist Award (2010) of the Hong Kong Institution of Science.






Research Interests Development of non-invasive respiratory mucosal sample collection tools for the analyses of virus, antibody, microbiota and immune mediators
Development and application of human primary respiratory epithelial cell models, including the air-liquid interface and the organoid cultures, to perform risk assessment for emerging infectious airway pathogens and research on the disease pathogenesis
Understanding of the biology of:
- viral interference observed in the epidemiological study
- rhinovirus infection in the paediatric population
- mucosal verse circulating immunoglobulins diversity


Honorary Appointments Honorary Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong.


Academic Engagement in CUHK Teaching programme: Perspectives in Clinical Sciences” (UGEB2791); MEDU3330 Viral Morphology and Replication
Summer Undergraduate Research Programme supervisor in 2015-2020, Office of Academic Link, CUHK
CUHK Host Family Programme in 2015-2020, Office of student Affairs. CUHK
Coordinator for Med 4-6, Shaw College
Member, Student Development Programmes Committee, Shaw College


Awards 1st Prize Oral Presentation: Joint Annual Scientific Meeting 2020, HKPS/HKCOP/HKPNA/HKCPN, Hong Kong 11/2020
HKIA Research Grant, Hong Kong Institute of Allergy, 9/2020
Outstanding Abstract Award, The 7th Shanghai-HongKong-Guangdong-Chongqing Paediatric Meeting, Shanghai, China 12/2019
Global Health Travel Award, Framing the Response to Emerging Virus Infections, Keystone Symposia, Hong Kong, 10/2018
Joint Research Travel Grant, University Medical Center – Utrecht, 07/2018
HKIA Research Grant, Hong Kong Institute of Allergy, 9/2018
Best Poster Presentation, 13th Congress of Asian Society for Paediatric Research, Hong Kong, 10/2017
Young Scientist Award, Hong Kong Institution of Science, Hong Kong, 11/2010


Patents US Provisional Application No. 62/865,347. Invention Title: N-Substituted Oseltamivir Derivatives with Antimicrobial Activity






Selected Publications Yi-Ping Ho, Fuyang Qu, Shirui Zhao, Guangyao Cheng, Md Habibur Rahman, Qinru Xiao, Chan RWY (2021) Double emulsion-pretreated microwell culture for in vitro production of multicellular spheroids and in situ analysis. Microsystems & Nanoengineering. Ref #MICRONANO-01357R1, accepted on 11 March 2021.
Pun CS, Wang H, Tao KP, Tsun JGS, Yu WY, Chen XY, Wang MH, Chan PKS, Leung TF, Chan RWY (2020) Discovering the molecular determinant in rhinoviruses by virus-genotype to disease-phenotype association in paediatrics patients in Hong Kong. European Respiratory Journal 2020 56: 1152.
Zhao S, Lou J, Cao L, Chen Z, Chan RW, Chong MK, Zee BC, Chan PK, Wang MH. 2020. Quantifying the importance of the key sites on haemagglutinin in determining the selection advantage of influenza virus: using A/H3N2 as an example. Journal of Infection.
Lui G, To HK, Lee N, Chan RW, Li T, Wong RY, Hui DS, Ip M. Adherence to treatment guideline improves patient outcomes in a prospective cohort of adults hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia, p ofaa146. In (ed), Oxford University Press US,
Leung TF, Tang MF, Leung ASY, Kong APS, Liu TC, Chan RWY, Ma RCW, Sy HY, Chan JCN, Wong GWK. 2020. Cadherin‐related family member 3 gene impacts childhood asthma in Chinese children. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology 31:133-142.
Cheng WT, Hon KL, Chan RW, Chan LC, Wong W, Cheung HM, Qian SY. 2020. Outcome of status asthmaticus at a pediatric intensive care unit in Hong Kong. The Clinical Respiratory Journal 14:462-470.
Chan RW, Chan KC, Chan KY, Lui GC, Tsun JG, Wong RY, Yu MW, Wang MH, Chan PK, Lam HS. 2020. SARS-CoV-2 detection by nasal strips: a superior tool for surveillance of pediatric population. The Journal of Infection.
Chan LL, Nicholls JM, Peiris JM, Lau YL, Chan MC, Chan RW. 2020. Host DNA released by NETosis in neutrophils exposed to seasonal H1N1 and highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses.
Wang H, Tao K, Leung CY, Hon KL, Yeung CA, Chen Z, Chan KP, Leung T-F, Chan RW. 2019. Molecular epidemiological study of enterovirus D68 in hospitalised children in Hong Kong in 2014–2015 and their complete coding sequences. BMJ open respiratory research 6:e000437.
Wai-san Ko F, Chan PK-s, Chan RW, Chan K-P, Ip A, Kwok A, Ngai JC-l, Ng S-S, On CT, Hui DS-c. 2019. Molecular detection of respiratory pathogens and typing of human rhinovirus of adults hospitalized for exacerbation of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Respiratory research 20:210.
Bui CH*, Chan RW*, Ng MM, Cheung M, Ng K-c, Chan MP, Chan LL, Fong JH, Nicholls J, Peiris JM. 2019. Tropism of influenza B viruses in human respiratory tract explants and airway organoids. European Respiratory Journal 54. Equal contribution*
Hon KL, Chan KH, Ko PL, Cheung MHY, Tsang KYC, Chan LC, Chan RW, Leung TF, Ip M. 2018. Change in Pneumococcus Serotypes but not Mortality or Morbidity in Pre-and Post-13-Valent Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine Era: Epidemiology in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit over 10 Years. Journal of tropical pediatrics 64:403-408.
Chan M, Chan RW, Mok K, Mak N, Wong RN. 2018. Indirubin-3’-oxime as an antiviral and immunomodulatory agent in treatment of severe human influenza virus infection. Hong Kong Medical Journal.
Chan RWY, K Tao, J Tsun, W Yu, HC Wang, Y Song, M Tong, C Ng, P Chan, W Lee, T Leung (2017) Tropism of human rhinovirus C in lower respiratory tract (2017) American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 201:A4045.
Leung TF, Chan RW, Kwok A, Ho WC, Tao MK, Hon KL, Cheng FW, Li AM, Chan PK. 2017. School‐based surveillance for influenza vaccine effectiveness during 2014‐2015 seasons in Hong Kong. Influenza and other respiratory viruses 11:319-327.
Chan RW, Chan LL, Mok CK, Lai J, Tao KP, Obadan A, Chan MC, Perez DR, Peiris JM, Nicholls JM. 2017. Replication of H9 influenza viruses in the human ex vivo respiratory tract, and the influence of neuraminidase on virus release. Scientific reports 7:1-11.
Tong AS, Hon KL, Tsang YCK, Chan RW, Chan CC, Leung TF, Chan PK. 2016. Paramyxovirus Infection: Mortality and Morbidity in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Journal of tropical pediatrics 62:352-360.
Chan MC, Kuok DI, Leung CY, Hui KP, Valkenburg SA, Lau EH, Nicholls JM, Fang X, Guan Y, Lee JW, Chan RW, Webster RG, Matthay MA, Peiris JS. 2016. Human mesenchymal stromal cells reduce influenza A H5N1-associated acute lung injury in vitro and in vivo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113:3621-3626.
Chan LL, Bui CT, Mok CK, Ng MM, Nicholls JM, Peiris JM, Chan MC, Chan RW. 2016. Evaluation of the human adaptation of influenza A/H7N9 virus in PB2 protein using human and swine respiratory tract explant cultures. Scientific reports 6:35401.
Jia N, Barclay WS, Roberts K, Yen H-L, Chan RW, Lam AK, Air G, Peiris JM, Dell A, Nicholls JM. 2014. Glycomic characterization of respiratory tract tissues of ferrets implications for its use in influenza virus infection studies. Journal of Biological Chemistry 289:28489-28504.
Chan RW*, Hemida MG*, Kayali G*, Chu DK, Poon LL, Alnaeem A, Ali MA, Tao KP, Ng HY, Chan MC. 2014. Tropism and replication of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus from dromedary camels in the human respiratory tract: an in-vitro and ex-vivo study. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2:813-822. Equal contribution*