Yuet Wai Kan


Yuet Wai Kan FRS, is a Canadian-American geneticist and hematologist. 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.

Biography

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. and M.D. 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 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.

Research

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.
Kan is best known for his groundbreaking works in sickle cell and thalassemia. He is the first person who used fetal DNA diagnosis techniques to study these diseases. Kan's work led to the innovation of DNA diagnosis.
Kan discovered DNA polymorphism, which nowadays is widely used in genetic analysis for human diseases.

Honors and awards