Yuet Wai Kan facts for kids

Yuet Wai Kan (born June 11, 1936) is a famous Chinese-American geneticist and hematologist. Geneticists study how traits are passed down through families, and hematologists study blood and blood diseases.

Dr. Kan is known for his important discoveries about blood diseases. He helped create ways to test for these diseases before a baby is born. He is currently a special professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also used to be the president of the American Society of Hematology, a group for blood doctors and scientists.

Early Life and Education

Yuet Wai Kan was born in Hong Kong in 1936. His family was well-known there. His father, Tong Po Kan, helped start a bank. Yuet Wai was the youngest of 14 children. His older brother, Yuet-keung Kan, was also a very important person in Hong Kong.

Yuet Wai started school before World War II reached Hong Kong. After the war, he went to Wah Yan College and finished in 1952. Following his father's wish, he studied medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He earned his medical degree in 1958. He also received a special Doctor of Science degree from HKU in 1980.

His Amazing Career Journey

After medical school, Dr. Kan worked at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong for two years. In 1960, he moved to the United States to learn more. He wanted to become an expert in blood diseases.

• He first went to Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. There, he learned about hematology and became very interested in research.
• Next, he went to the University of Pittsburgh to finish his training.
• Then, he studied hemoglobin (the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• He also worked at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It was there that he became interested in a blood disease called thalassemia after seeing a baby with it.

In 1970, Dr. Kan moved to Boston Children's Hospital to study thalassemia more deeply. He also became a professor at Harvard University. In 1972, he moved to San Francisco General Hospital to lead the blood disease department. At the same time, he became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

From 1976 to 2003, he was also a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1977, he became a full professor at UCSF. He later became the head of the Genetics and Molecular Hematology division. This means he led research into how genes affect blood and blood diseases.

Dr. Kan also helped lead important groups. He was president of the American Society of Hematology in 1990. He also advised the Croucher Foundation in Hong Kong, which supports science.

Groundbreaking Research Discoveries

Dr. Kan is most famous for his research on thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder. He also made huge contributions to prenatal testing (testing before birth) for blood diseases. He also studied single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are tiny differences in our DNA.

Finding the Cause of Thalassemia

Dr. Kan and his team made a huge discovery. They found that a missing gene caused a type of thalassemia called alpha-thalassemia. This was the first time anyone showed that a missing gene could cause a human disease!

He was also the first to show that just one tiny change in DNA could lead to a human disease. And he was the first to use a DNA test to diagnose a human disease. In 1979, he found that a small change (a mutation) in DNA caused beta-thalassemia. This showed that SNPs could cause diseases.

Developing Prenatal Testing

In 1972, Dr. Kan found a way to get hemoglobin protein from a baby's blood before birth. He showed that if the hemoglobin was abnormal, it meant the baby had sickle cell disease. This allowed doctors to find the disease early.

Building on his discovery about alpha-thalassemia, he created a DNA test for it. This was the first time a DNA test was used to diagnose a human condition. In 1978, he found a specific SNP near the gene that causes sickle cell disease. By looking at this SNP, doctors could indirectly find out if someone had the sickle cell gene. This was the first time SNPs were used to help diagnose human diseases.

Modern Treatments

More recently, Dr. Kan has been using gene therapy and genome editing to treat blood diseases. These new techniques aim to fix the faulty genes that cause diseases like thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and even blood cancer.

Personal Life

Yuet Wai Kan married Alvera Limauro in 1964 in Boston. They met while working in the same lab. They have two daughters, Susan and Deborah, and five grandchildren. Susan is a lawyer, and Deborah started an online platform about Alzheimer's disease. As of 2019, Dr. Kan and his wife live in San Francisco.

Honors and Awards

Dr. Kan has received many important awards for his amazing work.

The University of Hong Kong even created a special professorship in his honor, called the Y W Kan Professorship in Natural Sciences.