Yuet Wai Kan FRS (Chinese: 簡悅威; Jyutping: Gaan2 Jyut6 Wai1; born June 11, 1936), is a Chinese-American geneticist and hematologist.
[12] Kan started his education at True Light Elementary School, not long before the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II.
[1][14] After spending 2 years at Queen Mary Hospital for residency and internship, at the advice of David Todd, a professor at the HKU Department of Medicine,[16] Kan went to the United States in 1960 to work and be trained in various North American institutions.
[2] He then moved to the University of Pittsburgh to finish his clinical training and residency under Jack Myers,[2][18] and then joined Vernon Ingram at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn about hemoglobin.
[13] Kan then joined Royal Victoria Hospital at McGill University in Montreal as a fellow in hematology under Louis Lowenstein.
Digesting this DNA sequence with special enzymes (known as restriction enzymes) yielded specific DNA fragments, the sets of which varied according to the SNP variation and, by association, the presence of the sickle cell disease-causing mutation,[43][44] suggesting an indirect diagnostic method for the disease and marking the first use of SNPs in genetic linkage analysis of human diseases.
[2] In the recent decade, Kan has applied gene therapy and genome editing techniques to treat thalassemia, sickle cell disease and blood cancer.
[13] They have 2 daughters, Susan, a lawyer in San Francisco,[4] and Deborah,[4] a former Wall Street Journal reporter in Hong Kong and the founder an online information platform for Alzheimer's disease called Being Patient,[49][50] and 5 grandchildren.