Yuet Wai Kan
| Yuet Wai Kan 簡悅威 |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
11 June 1936 Hong Kong |
| Citizenship | United States Canada |
| Fields |
human genetics Medicine |
| Institutions |
University of Hong Kong Queen Mary Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital University of Pittsburgh MIT McGill University Penn Children's Hospital Boston Harvard Medical School San Francisco General Hospital HHMI UCSF |
| Alma mater | University of Hong Kong |
| Known for | human blood diseases prenatal diagnosis DNA diagnosis DNA polymorphism |
| Notable awards |
Allan Award (1984) Gairner Int'l Award (1984) Lasker Award (1991) Shaw Prize (2004) |
Yuet Wai Kan FRS (Chinese: 簡悅威, also written as Yuet-Wai Kan) (born 11 June 1936), is a Canadian and American medical scientist and physician. He is the current Louis K. Diamond Professor of Hematology and the head of the Division of Molecular Medicine and Diagnostics at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the former President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
Kan was born in Hong Kong in 1936. His brother, Sir Yuet Keung Kan, was the Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council of Hong Kong.
Kan graduated with an M.B.B.S. (in 1958) and M.D. (in 1980) both from the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine. He undertook his medical training at Queen Mary Hospital, then went to United States for further study.
Since 1976, Kan has been a research investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Kan served as the president of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in 1990.
Kan is currently a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Kan also sits on both the Board of Adjudicators and the Selection Committee for Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of the Shaw Prize.
Kan is regarded as a pioneer of applying molecular biology and genetics into clinical medicine. Kan was the first to establish that a single DNA mutation could lead to a human disease, and the first to diagnose a human disease by using DNA.
Kan has made many fundamental contributions to our understanding of human blood diseases. Kan was the first to discover the gene deletion in human alpha-thalassemia; he was the first to discover a point-mutation causing human beta-thalassemia; with Golbus' help, he was the first to carry out prenatal diagnosis (for a haemoglobinopathy).
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