Ho Yin Edwin CHAN is Professor and Director of the School of Life Sciences (SLS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He served as Director of the Master of Science Degree Programme in Biochemical and Biomedical Sciences of SLS from 2010-2016, Biochemistry Undergraduate Programme Associate Director (2022-2023), Biochemistry Undergraduate Programme Director (2023-2024), and Deputy Director of the Bachelor of Science Degree Natural Sciences Programme (2013-2024). Edwin has been involved in a wide spectrum of services at CUHK. In particular, he was Associate Vice-President and University Dean of Students of CUHK (2017-2019); Dean of General Education (2014-2017) and Associate Head (2021-2023)/Dean of Students (2022-2023) of Chung Chi College, CUHK.

Edwin obtained his undergraduate training in biochemistry from CUHK, doctoral training in genetics from The University of Cambridge (UK), and postdoctoral training in neuroscience from The University of Pennsylvania (USA). As a trainee, he received numerous scholarship and fellowship awards in support of his research training, including Croucher Foundation Scholarship, Wellcome Trust International Traveling Research Fellowship, Human Frontier Program Long-Term Research Fellowship, Huntington’s Disease Society of America Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and Hereditary Disease Foundation John J. Wasmuth Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Since 1999, Edwin investigates pathogenic pathways of repeat expansion diseases, including spinocerebellar ataxias, Huntington’s Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and myotonic dystrophy, which belong to a group of rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases. He takes a multi-disciplinary approach to identity new disease loci, study disease pathogeneses, and develop therapeutics for these disorders. Edwin’s contribution to the field is well recognized. He has received various research prizes, including the 2010 CUHK Young Researcher Award, and the Genetics Society of China 13th Ju-Chi Li Animal Genetics Prize in 2011. In 2014, he was awarded a Churchill College Visiting By-Fellowship to study pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxias at the Department of Genetics, The University of Cambridge (UK). Edwin established an intercontinental research collaboration network Nexus of Rare Neurodegenerative Diseases (NRND) in 2019, and co-manages research programs with collaborators from Denmark, France, Italy, Slovenia, UK and USA. To date, Edwin’s research has attracted over HK$64M (~US$8.2M) of external funding, and he has published over 110 scientific articles. In terms of technology transfer, Edwin currently holds 6 US patents. He co-founded his company Rare Power Limited in 2023. Rare Power Limited has been admitted to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks’ IncuBio Programme in 2024.

Edwin is consultant of the Hong Kong Spinocerebellar Ataxia Association and Chairperson of the Association’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee. He served on the Asia-Pacific Drosophila Board as the founding representative of Hong Kong, and was the Organizing Committee member of the inaugural and 2nd Asia-Pacific Drosophila Research Conference in 2011 and 2013 respectively, and the Inaugural Asia-Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference in 2017. He is currently member of the Public Education and Communication Committee of the Society for Neuroscience from 2024-2027. He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration; and ad hoc reviewer for scientific journals, including Autophagy, Brain, Cell Death & Disease, Cell Research, EMBO Journal, EMBO Molecular Medicine, EMBO Reports, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, PLoS Genetics, PNAS, Science Translational Medicine. Edwin is a Biology and Medicine Panel (Joint Research Schemes) member of the Research Grants Council Hong Kong. He also serves as reviewers for international funding agencies, including Medical Research Council (UK), Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, Wellcome Trust (UK) and Telethon Foundation (Italy). Edwin is Founding Member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences, and served on Academy’s inaugural Executive Committee from 2019 to 2022.

Edwin is married to Mandy, and they have a lovely daughter Gabriella. In his spare time, he takes up the role as photographer of the family. He loves endurance sports, such as long-distance running, tri-sports and hiking. He published his autobiography 毋忘初心的科學家 in June 2017 and contributed to the production of a popular science education comic book 果蠅俠 in September 2020. Edwin is committed to both secondary and tertiary education. He is School Supervisor and School Council member of secondary schools in Hong Kong.