Chan Tak Mao Daniel

  • Fellowship in 1990 at Guy's Hospital

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. He received his training in Nephrology and Internal Medicine at the University of Hong Kong and Guy's Hospital, London, UK.

Currently

Professor Chan's research interests include:

  • treatment and immuno-pathogenesis of lupus nephritis
  • management of viral hepatitis in immunosuppressed patients with kidney diseases

The team is internationally recognized for their research output in lupus nephritis. In 2000 he published, in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first randomized controlled trial demonstrating the efficacy and tolerability of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in the treatment of severe lupus nephritis. Extended follow-up data from this investigator-initiated study was later published in the J Am Soc Nephrol (2005) and Rheumatology (Oxford) (2013). These results have subsequently been reconfirmed by other investigators and large-scale international multicenter studies, and MMF is now an established first-line standard of care treatment for lupus nephritis. The team has also investigated the potential of calcineurin inhibitors and proliferation signal inhibitors as novel treatments for lupus nephritis.
Their basic research on lupus nephritis pathogenesis focuses on the interaction of anti-dsDNA antibodies with resident renal cells. They discovered that human anti-dsDNA antibodies could bind to annexin II on the surface of mesangial cells. After binding to the cell surface these autoantibodies are internalized and translocated to the cell nucleus, where they mediate downstream inflammatory and fibrotic responses. Translational work is being done to investigate the mechanisms and approaches to intervene progressive renal fibrosis following active lupus nephritis. The results have been published in J Am Soc Nephrol, Arthritis Rheum, and Kidney Int.
The 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 showed that pre-emptive antiviral treatment markedly improved the survival of HBsAg+ kidney transplant recipients, and investigated the role of novel antiviral medications. These results have been published in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Am J Transplant, and Transplantation. He is also an author for related chapters in UpToDate.