Biography

Dr. Chan had a lifelong interest in human autoantibodies since his postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. His laboratory was highly successful in using autoimmune antibodies to identify and clone a number of interesting self-antigens. These include SS-B/La; Ro52/TRIM21; the ribosomal RNA transcription factor NOR90/hUBF; p80-coilin of the Cajal body; coiled-coil-rich Golgi protein family known as golgins; and GW182, a marker for cytoplasmic foci GW bodies. In the past 10 years, another new research area is the identification of novel rod/ring subcellular structures, that are targets of autoantibodies in patients with hepatitis C infection and have undergone interferon/ribavirin therapy. These structures are observed in conditions requiring increased GTP/CTP biosynthesis in all mammalian cells examined to date. Recently their assembly is identified in the spleen and thymus in an immune response-dependent manner. Since 1999, Dr. Chan has served on the Autoantibody Standardization Committee and currently serving as Chairman (2015-8, 2nd term 2018-21). He also served as coordinator for the International Consensus on Antinuclear antibody Patterns (ICAP) initiative together with Professor Luis E. C. Andrade since 2014.