Ho Yin Edwin Chan is Professor and Director of the School of Life Sciences (SLS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Dean of Students of S.H. Ho College, CUHK. He previously served as Director of the Master of Science Programme in Biochemical and Biomedical Sciences (2010–2016), Associate Director (2022–2023) and Director (2023–2024) of the Biochemistry Undergraduate Programme, and Deputy Director of the Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences Programme (2013–2024). His wider University service includes appointments as Associate Vice-President and University Dean of Students (2017–2019), and, at Chung Chi College, Dean of General Education (2014–2017), Associate Head (2021–2023) and Dean of Students (2022–2023).

Edwin received his undergraduate training in biochemistry at CUHK, his doctoral training in genetics at the University of Cambridge (UK), and his postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). As a trainee, he was supported by the Croucher Foundation Scholarship, the Wellcome Trust International Travelling Research Fellowship, the Human Frontier Science Program Long-Term Research Fellowship, the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and the 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—a group of rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders caused by dynamic mutations of the genomic repetitive sequences. He takes a multidisciplinary approach to identify new disease loci, study disease pathogenesis, and develop therapeutics. His contributions have been recognised by the 2010 CUHK Young Researcher Award and the Genetics Society of China’s 13th Ju-Chi Li Animal Genetics Prize (2011). In 2014, he was awarded a Churchill College Visiting By-Fellowship to study the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxias in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. In 2019 he established the intercontinental Nexus of Rare Neurodegenerative Diseases (NRND) and co-manages research programmes with collaborators in Denmark, France, Italy, Singapore, Slovenia, the UK and the USA. To date, his research has attracted over HK$64 million (~US$8.2 million) in external funding, and he has published more than 120 scientific articles.

Edwin served on the Asia-Pacific Drosophila Board as the founding representative of Hong Kong and was a member of the Organising Committees of the inaugural and 2nd Asia-Pacific Drosophila Research Conferences (2011 and 2013) and the Inaugural Asia-Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference (2017). He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience Public Education and Communication Committee (2024–2027). He is Academic Editor of PLoS Genetics and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience — Neurodegeneration, and an ad hoc reviewer for journals including Autophagy, Brain, Cell Death & Disease, Cell Research, The EMBO Journal, EMBO Molecular Medicine, EMBO Reports, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, PLoS Genetics, PNAS and Science Translational Medicine. He serves on the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Biology and Medicine Panel (Joint Research Schemes) and reviews for international funders including the Medical Research Council (UK), the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, the Wellcome Trust (UK) and the Telethon Foundation (Italy). He is a Founding Member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences and served on its inaugural Executive Committee from 2019 to 2022.

In technology transfer, Edwin holds six US patents and co-founded Rare Power Limited in 2023. The company was admitted to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks IncuBio Programme in 2024. He received The Spirit of Innovation Award in the 13th Spirit of Hong Kong Awards 2025 (2025香港精神獎—創新為社群獎), co-organised by the South China Morning Post and Sino Group. The company’s peptide drug RP001v63 was granted Orphan Drug Designation in August 2026. Edwin is Consultant to the Hong Kong Spinocerebellar Ataxia Association and Chairperson of its Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee. With neurologists and clinical geneticists, he co-initiated the Hong Kong spinocerebellar ataxia patient registry in 2012. He also worked with speech therapists and electronic engineers to develop VoiceLink, which uses AI to characterise patients’ speech and convert it into text. VoiceLink was featured in the CUHK Technology Transfer Office’s book 《學人搞社創2.0》, published in 2025.

Edwin is married to Mandy; they have a daughter, Gabriella. In his spare time he is the family photographer. He enjoys endurance sports, including long-distance running, triathlon and hiking. He published his autobiography 《毋忘初心的科學家》 in June 2017 and contributed to the popular science comic 《果蠅俠》 in September 2020. Committed to both secondary and tertiary education, he serves as School Supervisor and School Council member of secondary schools in Hong Kong.