Professor Tak Mao Daniel Chan is currently Chair Professor, Yu Chiu Kwong Professor in Medicine, and Chief of Nephrology Division in the Department of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong West Cluster Hospitals. He received his training in Nephrology and Internal Medicine at the University of Hong Kong and Guy’s Hospital, London, UK.

Research Profile

Prof Chan's research interests include:

• clinical management of lupus nephritis

• immuno-pathogenesis of lupus nephritis and chronic kidney diseases focusing on mechanisms leading to renal fibrosis

• management of viral hepatitis in patients with chronic kidney disease

The team is internationally recognized for their clinical and translational research in lupus nephritis. Since the mid-1990s TM Chan’s team has published on clinical management regimens including the landmark paper in 2000 in the New England Journal of Medicine which led to establishment of mycophenolate as a new treatment paradigm for lupus nephritis. The team has also established the long-term safety and efficacy of mycophenolate as maintenance immunosuppression, and has investigated novel treatments including tacrolimus and mTOR inhibitors, with publications in J Am Soc Nephrol, Nature Rev Nephrol, Rheumatology, etc. TM Chan is the Lead Author for the Chapter on Lupus Nephritis in the latest version of KDIGO Clinical Management Guidelines for Glomerulonephritis, to be published in 2019/20.

The team’s translational and basic research focuses on immuno-pathogenesis of lupus nephritis and mechanisms leading to kidney fibrosis in chronic kidney disease due to lupus nephritis or other glomerular diseases. Their findings include the discovery that human anti-dsDNA antibodies could bind to glomerular mesangial cell membrane annexin II and get transported into the cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments leading to downstream cellular responses that contribute towards a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cellular phenotype. Their work using animal models examined the effects of novel treatments for lupus nephritis and mechanisms leading to kidney fibrosis and chronic kidney disease. The results have been published in J Am Soc Nephrol, Arthritis Rheum, Kidney Int, and other leading nephrology, rheumatology, or translational medicine journals.

TM Chan’s team was among the first in the early 1990s to describe the epidemiology and natural history of hepatitis C infection in dialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients, and is internationally recognized for their work in hepatitis B management in kidney transplant recipients. They were among the first to advocate preventive anti-viral treatment of kidney transplant patients at risk of hepatitis B reactivation, and they reported substantially improved patient survival with their clinical management strategy. The team has published their research output in leading journals including Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Transplantation, American Journal of Transplantation, and Transplant Infectious Disease. TM Chan is also an author for related chapters in UpToDate.