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Respiratory Infection

Research interests:

Dr Chan research interests are respiratory epithelial biology, virus-host interaction, patient-specific disease model construction and novel therapeutics development for acute and chronic respiratory diseases.

Description of research topics:

The Chan lab is focusing on creating age- and disease-specific primary human respiratory epithelial cell models to study various respiratory virus infections. They are integrating classical virological methods and current-omics approaches to develop platforms for specific research questions and conduct drug screenings for acute viral infections and chronic obstructive airway diseases.

Ongoing research:

  • Rhinovirus infection in asthmatic children
  • Early diagnosis in asthmatic children
  • Pre-mature and ageing airways
  • Antiviral drug screening platform enhancement
  • Novel therapeutics development for obstructive airway diseases
  • Mucosal immunity development in relation to vaccine strategy
  • Viral interference

Principal Investigators:

Dr. CHAN Wan Yi Renee

  • Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, CUHK
  • Investigator – SH Ho Research Centre for Infectious Disease, CUHK
  • Investigator – Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, CUHK
  • Investigator – CUHK-HK Hub of Paediatric Excellence, CUHK
  • Associate Researcher (by courtesy) – CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute 
  • Associate Dean of Students, Shaw College, CUHK

Research Team Members

  • Mars Kin-pong TAO, PhD, Research Associate 
  • Joan Marie Javillo Baguio, BSc, Research Assistant 
  • Chanin SILLAPACHAIYAPORN, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (Co-supervise)
  • Kathy Yuen-yee CHAN, PhD, Scientific Officer
  • Joseph Gar-shun TSUN, PhD, Research Associate
  • Ben Kam-san WONG, BSc, PhD student, Year 5
  • Shaojun LIU, MD, PhD student, Year 4
  • Behzad NASIRI AHMADABADI, MSc, PhD student, Year 3
  • Shuo WANG, PhD student, Year 2
  • Tony Chun-hei LEI, PhD student, Year 2
  • Kwan-hou TANG, PhD student, Year 1

Related Publications

For full list of publications, please visit here.

  1. Tao KP, Tsun GJG, Lau RWH, Ng CSH, Ko FWS, Chan RWY: Nasal airway organoid model: recapitulating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and representing disease severity gradient (abstract). American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2024;209:A4281. Corresponding author
  2. Liu S, Tsun JGS, Fung GPG, Lui GCY, Chan KYY, Chan PKS, Chan RWY: Comparison of the mucosal and systemic antibody responses in Covid-19 recovered patients with one dose of mRNA vaccine and unexposed subjects with three doses of mRNA vaccines. Frontiers in Immunology 2023 Jan 30;14:1127401. Corresponding author
  3. Scheeff S, Wang Y, Lyu MY, Ahmadabadi BN, Hau CK, Hui KC, Zhang YF, Zuo Z, Chan RW*, Ng BWL*. Design and Synthesis of Bicyclo[4.3.0]nonene Nucleoside Analogues. Organic Letters. 2023 Dec 22: 25(50):8959-9082. Co-corresponding author
  4. Tao KP, Chong M, Chan KYY, Pun JC, Tsun JG, Chow SM, Ng CS, Wang MH, Chan Z, Chan PK, Li AM, Chan RWY: Suppression of influenza virus infection by rhinovirus interference at the population, individual and cellular levels. Current Research in Microbial Sciences 2022 Jun 18,3:100147 Corresponding author
  5. Bui CHT*, Chan RWY*, Ng MMT, Cheung MC, Ng KC, Chan MPK, Chan LLY, Fong JHM, Nicholls JM, Peiris JSM, Chan MCW: Tropism of influenza B viruses in human respiratory tract explants and airway organoids. European Respiratory Journal 2019 Aug 54(2):1900008 Co-first author

Event or Activity

Tony LEI presented a poster titled 'Differential Transcriptomic Responses in Paediatric Nasal Epithelial Cells to Influenza Infections Compared to Adults and the Elderly' at the OPTIONS XII for the Control of Influenza 2024 held in Brisbane, Australia. He was awarded the best poster presentation in the category of Virology and Pathogenesis out of around 800 posters. (Oct 2024)
Tony LEI presented a poster titled 'Differential Transcriptomic Responses in Paediatric Nasal Epithelial Cells to Influenza Infections Compared to Adults and the Elderly' at the OPTIONS XII for the Control of Influenza 2024 held in Brisbane, Australia. He was awarded the best poster presentation in the category of Virology and Pathogenesis out of around 800 posters. (Oct 2024)
香港中文大學卓越兒童健康研究所，婦女兒童醫學中心（深圳）正式成立。期待即將展開的研究課題。(Sept 2024)
香港中文大學卓越兒童健康研究所，婦女兒童醫學中心（深圳）正式成立。期待即將展開的研究課題。(Sept 2024)

For more latest events, please visit here.

Former Group Members

Name Previous Position Current Position
Stacy Lok-sze YAM Research Assistant PhD student, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Jason Chun-sang PUN Post-doctoral Fellow, PhD Student N/A
Yan WANG Post-doctoral Fellow Specially Appointed Professor, Gannan Medical University, China
Steffi Xiao-hang LONG Post-doctoral Fellow Research Assistant Professor, CUHK
Louisa Lok-yung CHAN Post-doctoral Fellow Senior Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lucky TSOI BSc, Summer Intern MSc Student, Imperial College London, UK
Omar YL CHONG BSc, Intern BSc student, CUHK
Hippo MH NG BSc, Summer Intern BSc student, CUHK
Zia CHAN BSc, Summer Intern BSc student, University of Toronto, Canada
Yinran XIANG BSc, Summer Intern BSc student, University of California, Los Angeles, US
Adrian SH SU Summer intern Medical Student, Queen Mary University of London
Athena CHU MBChB, summer intern MBChB student, CUHK
Ian M HENSON BSc, Summer Intern BSc student, CUHK
Tommy HY TSANG BSc, Summer Intern BSc student, CUHK
Christy CHAN MBChB, summer intern MBChB student, CUHK
Ernie B LEE MBChB, summer intern Medical Officer, Hospital Authority, HK
Jonathan Y CHEUNG MBChB, summer intern Medical Officer, Hospital Authority, HK
Samuel SZE BSc, Intern PhD Student, HKU
Daniel LI Summer Intern Medical Student, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University
Victor XY CHEN BS, Intern MBChB, CUHK & Master’s student, Harvard Medical School
Tiffany Tang-jun LI BSc, Summer Intern Medical Doctor, Department of Health, HKSAR
Christy Hoi-ching, CHEUNG BSc, Summer Intern PhD student, University of Basel, Switzerland
Andrea Coulthard SØRENSEN BSc, Summer Intern Associate Strategy Partner, Novo Nordisk, Denmark
Hailey Yee TSUI BSc, Summer Intern Medical Student, University of Sussex, UK
Kelvin Kwong-yee LUI Research Assistant N/A
Ka-ling FUNG Research Assistant N/A
Jasmine Wai-Sum YU Research Assistant N/A
Waii Wai-yin YU Research Assistant N/A
Joanne Hoi-man FONG Research Assistant N/A
Haichao WANG MPhil Student PhD student, University of Cambridge, UK