Anthony Chan
DVM, PhD, Researcher, Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Expert Bio
Anthony W.S. Chan, DVM, PhD, studies nonhuman primate models of human inherited diseases, including developing transgenic reporter cells for noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and developing personal stem cells for cell therapy. In 2001, Dr. Chan created the first transgenic monkey, and in 2008, he created the first transgenic monkey model of human inherited disease, Huntington’s disease (HD). This animal model is expected to lead to greater understanding of the underlying biology of HD and to the development of potential therapies. In addition, this pioneering work is leading the way toward the development of nonhuman primate models of other genetic diseases.
He received his doctorate in veterinary medicine from the National Taiwan University in Taiwan, Republic of China. He later attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and trained in the fields of endocrinology and reproductive physiology.
Dr. Chan was a guest speaker at the 2015 World Stem Cell Summit. He discussed his work to successfully create a nonhuman primate model of HD as a preclinical animal model for regenerative medicine. He also discussed his research focused on neural cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells of the HD monkey model to be used in cell replacement therapy. This is an exciting new area of research that holds hope for developing and evaluating novel treatments, such as cell replacement therapy for HD.
Dr. Chan is the director of a new NIH-funded resource based at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the Transgenic Huntington’s Disease Monkey Resource (THDMR). The mission of the THDMR is to facilitate basic and preclinical applications of the transgenic Huntington’s disease (HD) monkey model to advance scientific knowledge and the discovery of a cure for HD. More information is available here.
Studies, Articles and Answers
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A: Technically, you can mix traits among species, which is how transgenic work is done. The first transgenic mouse was introduced with the human growth hormone gene, and by overexpressing the growth hormone, the mouse grew bigger, but not the same as human size. This is more like the function of the gene. Whether it can mix the physical features between species will be different, but something like a chimera study that mixes animals of two strains might carry physical features of both. However, between species might not be possible and could be dependent on the different embryo/fetal development [...]
A: Technically, you can mix traits among species, which is how transgenic work is done. The first transgenic mouse was introduced with the human growth hormone gene, and by overexpressing the growth hormone, the mouse grew bigger, but not the same as human size. This is more like the function of the gene. Whether it can mix the physical features between species will be different, but something like a chimera study that mixes animals of two strains might carry physical features of both. However, between species might not be possible and could be dependent on the different embryo/fetal development [...]
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