- Fellowship in 2000 at Baylor College of Medicine
Dr Elly Sau-wai Ngan received her Bachelor and PhD degrees from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and The University of Hong Kong, respectively, in 1995 and 2000. Subsequently, she was awarded a fellowship from the Croucher Foundation and received her postdoctoral training in Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA. She moved back to Hong Kong and joined the Department of Surgery at The University of Hong Kong in 2004 and is currently an Associate Professor.
Her main research interest is to translate the genetic data obtained from patients into biology to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of neural crest associated diseases, with a particular focus on neuroblastoma and Hirschsprung disease (HSCR). Her laboratory has established various disease models using human pluripotent stem cell and transgenic/knock-out mice to decode the functional impacts of HSCR associated mutations in enteric nervous system development.
Dr Ngan has published 63 papers and many of her works were published in high impact peer-reviewed journals including Gastroenterology (IF: 18.2), Journal of the National Cancer Institute (IF:15.2), Journal of Clinical Investigation (IF:13.8), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (IF: 9.8), PLoS Genetics (IF:8.2), Clinical Cancer Research (IF: 8.193), and Oncogene (IF: 8.6). Some of her publications have been highlighted in “Covering the cover” and “Editorials” of the journals and one was cited as “Must Read” paper by Faculty of 1000 Medicine.
Dr Ngan is an internationally recognised scientist and has been invited to serve as the journal editor of various peer-reviewed journals including Scientific Reports (from the Nature group), and an organisation committee member of key international research meetings. She has also been invited to give a keynote lecture at the Nobel Forum of Karolinska institute, Sweden and served as chairperson in numerous international/local meetings. She is an invited reviewer for more than 20 peer-review journals and 3 grant agencies. Up to now, Dr. Ngan has secured 15 major research grants of a total of HK$12.84 million as principal investigator and HK$74.96 million as co-principal investigator in 3 collaborative grants including the Theme-based Research Scheme and University-Industry Collaboration Programme.
Currently
- Molecular and cellular biology
- Disease modeling
- Neural crest stem cells development and the associated diseases