Drug discovery
- Associate Director and Associate Professor, Teaching and Research Division
Biography 
Dr. Hiu Yee KWAN obtained her B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Biology from the Hong Kong University and Ph.D degree in Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her postdoctoral training in the Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the School.
Dr. Kwan develops various research platforms to have new insight into the interplay between obesity and cancer, and discover novel herbal-based target therapeutics and exosome-based therapeutics to treat cancer, obesity and its comorbid conditions. She has published over 70 research papers, review articles, editorials, and book chapters in prestigious journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Circulation Research, Cell Death and Disease, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, FASEB Journal, Journal of Proteome Research, Molecular Cell, Nature Communication and Cell. Currently, Dr. Kwan is an editorial board member for more than 10 international Journals.
+ More InformationResearch Interests
Focus on the interplay between obesity and cancer mediated by exosomes. Discover exosomal-based therapeutics and novel herbal-based target therapeutics for the treatments of cancers, obesity and its comorbid conditions.
Selected Publications
Chen MT, Zhang F, Chen B, Lau C, Xu K, Tong T, Huo C, Han Q, Liu Z, Su T*, Kwan HY*. (2022) Omics approach to reveal the effects of obesity on the protein profiles of the exosomes derived from different adipose depots. Cell Mol Life Sci. Accepted. [Impact factor: 10.002]
Gong RH, Chen M, Huang C, Wong HLX, Kwan HY*, Bian Z*. (2022) Combination of artesunate and WNT974 induces KRAS protein degradation by upregulating E3 ligase ANACP2 and β-TrCP in the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Cell Commun Signal 20(1), 34. [Impact factor: 7.919]
Kwan HY*, Chen MT, Xu K, Chen B. (2021) The impact of obesity on adipocyte derived extracellular vesicles. Cell Mol Life Sci 78(23), 7275-88. [impact factor: 9.261]
Chen MT, Zhong KY, Tan JC, Meng MJ, Liu CM, Chen B, Huang CH, Wong HLX, Bian ZX, Su T*, Kwan HY*. (2021) Baicalein directly binds to toll like receptor 4 and inhibits colorectal cancer growth and metastasis via the TLR4/HIF/VEGF axis. Clin Transl Med 11(11), e564. [Impact factor: 8.554]
Hu XJ, Fatima S, Huang T, Chen MT, Gong RH, Ho AHM, Wong HLX, Yu RM, Song L, Kwan HY*, Bian ZX*. (2021) Dihydroartemisinin is potential therapeutics for treating late-stage CRC by targeting the elevated c-Myc. Cell Death Dis 12(11), 1053. [Impact factor: 9.624]