Research


Genes and Molecular Mechanisms in Development

Prof. KCheah

Professor Cheah, Kathryn Song Eng (謝賞恩)

Contact
Email: biochem@hku.hk
Tel: (852) 2819 9240; (852) 2819 9233 (Lab)
Office: L3-73, Laboratory Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong

 

Kathryn Cheah is Chair Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong. She received a BSc degree in Biology from the University of London, U.K. and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, U.K. in Molecular Biology. After postdoctoral research in the University of Manchester (UK) and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, she joined the University of Hong Kong in 1983. She was Head of the Department of Biochemistry from 1997-2009 and Director of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine Centre for Reproduction, Development and Growth from 2004-2009.

Her research focuses on the regulation and function of genes and mechanisms of disease with an emphasis on the skeletal system,  human degenerative skeletal disorders and the inner ear.

Research Picture

Some key discoveries of her group are that SOX9 regulates the Col2a1gene; that SOX2 is essential for  prosensory development in the inner ear; that the ER stress signaling pathway causes abnormal chondrocyte differentiation in skeletal dysplasias associated with mutations in extracellular matrix genes that compromise protein folding in the ER.

Research picture

She is on Editorial Boards of Development Growth & Differentiation,  Matrix Biology, BioEssays, Nature Scientific Communications, Annual Reviews of Genomics & Human Genetics and is Associate Editor of Genesis.

She was awarded a Croucher Foundation Senior Fellowship in 2000. She is the founding and current President of the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology (HKSDB) and was the President of the International Society for Matrix Biology 2006-2008. She is the Hong Kong representative for the Asia-Pacific Developmental Biology Network  (APDBN) and the International Society of Developmental Biology.

She was Co-Vice-Chair and Co-Chair for the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) on Cartilage Biology and Pathology in 2009 and 2011 respectively.  In 2012 she was appointed to the GRC Advisory Board for Hong Kong. She has organised several Croucher Foundation Advanced Study Institutes on Genetics and on Stem Cells and actively promotes public understanding of science. Currently she is Chair of the organising committee of the HKSDB Symposium: From Embryology to Disease Mechanisms in honour of Patrick Tam to be held in November 2012. http://www.biochem.hku.hk/hksdb/events/nov_2012.html

Current Journal Editorial Boards:

  • Advisory Board member:  J. Biomedical Science 1999- 
  • Editorial Board member: Development Growth & Differentiation (DGD), 2006 -
  • Editorial Board member: Matrix Biology, 2006 –
  • Advisory Editorial Board:  BioEssays, 2009-
  • Associate Editor: Genesis,  2010 –
  • Editorial Board member: Nature Scientific Reports, 2011 -
  • Editorial Committee member:  Annual Reviews of Genomics & Human Genetics, 2012-

Current UGC/RGC-Funded Projects:

  • Group Research Programmes

    2005-2013
    Project Coordinator and PI:
    UGC Area of Excellence Grant Developmental Genomics & Skeletal Research

    2013-2018
    Project Coordinator and coPI:
    RGC TRS Grant Functional analyses of how genomic variation affects personal risk for degenerative skeletal disorders
     

  • RGC GRF Projects

    2010-2013
    Genetic analyses of sensory fate determination in inner ear development.

    2012-2015
    Genetic analyses of the roles of Sox2 and Sox18 in hair follicle development

Publications, Achievements, and Grants:

Selected Publications:

  • Leung V.Y.L., Gao B., Leung K.K.H., Melhado I.,. Wynn S.L,  Au T.Y.K., Dung N.W.F., Lau J.Y.B., Mak A.C.Y., Chan D.,  ¥Cheah K.S.E.  (2011)  Sox9 governs differentiation stage-specific gene expression in growth plate chondrocytes via direct concomitant transactivation and repression.  PLoS Genetics 7(11): e1002356.
  • K.Y. Tsang, Chan D, ¥K.S.E. Cheah. (2010) The developmental roles of the extracellular matrix: beyond structure to regulation.  Cell Tissue Res. 339(1):93-110.
  • K.Y. Tsang,  D Chan, J.F. Bateman, ¥K.S.E. Cheah (2010) In vivo cellular adaptation to ER stress: survival strategies with double edged consequences. J Cell Science. 123(Pt 13):2145-54. 
  • A.W.L. Leung, S.Y.Y. Wong, D. Chan, ¥P.P.L. Tam and ¥K.S.E. Cheah. (2010) Loss of procollagen IIA from the anterior mesendoderm disrupts the development of mouse embryonic forebrain.  Developmental Dynamics 239:2319-2329.
  • C.E. Scott, S.L. Wynn, A. Sesay, C. Cruz, M. Cheung,  M.G. Gaviro , S. Booth , B. Gao, K.S.E. Cheah , R. Lovell-Badge , J. Briscoe. (2010)  SOX9, acting downstream of Sonic hedgehog signalling, induces and maintains neural stem cells.  Nature Neuroscience 13(10):1181-9. 
  • A.C. Mak,. I.Y.Y Szeto, B.  Fritzsch, ¥K.S.E. Cheah (2009) Differential and overlapping expression pattern of Sox2 and Sox9 in inner ear development. Gene Expression Patterns  9(6):444-53.
  • I.Y.Y. Szeto, K.K.H. Leung, M.H. Sham, ¥K.S.E. Cheah (2009) Utility of Hoxb2 enhancer - mediated Cre activity for functional studies in the developing inner ear. Genesis  47(6):361-365.
  • K. Y. Tsang*, D. Chan*, D. Cheslett, W. C. W. Chan, C. L. So, I. G. Melhado, T. W. Y. Chan, K.M. Kwan, E.B. Hunziker, Y. Yamada, J. F. Bateman, K. M. C. Cheung, ¥K.S. E. Cheah (2007). Surviving ER Stress Is Coupled to Altered Chondrocyte Differentiation and Function PLoS Biology 5(3):e44. (* equal contribution)
  • A.E. Kiernan*, A.L. Pelling*, K.K.H. Leung, A.S.P. Tang, D.M. Bell, C. Tease, R. Lovell-Badge, K.P. Steel and ¥K.S.E. Cheah. (2005) Sox2 is required for sensory organ development in the mammalian inner ear. Nature 434 ,1031-5. (* equal contribution)
  • S. Dong, K.K.H. Leung, A.L. Pelling, P.Y.T. Lee, A.S.P. Tang, H.H.Q. Heng, L.C. Tsui, C. Tease, G. Fisher, K.P. Steel & ¥K.S.E. Cheah. Circling, deafness and yellow coat color displayed by chromosome 3 mouse mutants yellow submarine (Ysb) and light coat and circling (Lcc) (2002) Genomics 79, 777-784.
  • K.K.H. Leung, L.J. Ng, K.K.Y. Ho, P.P.L. Tam, & ¥K.S.E. Cheah (1998) Different cis-regulatory DNA elements mediate developmental stage- and tissue-specific expression of the human COL2A1 gene in transgenic mice. J. Cell Biol.141, 1291-1300.
  • K.M. Kwan, M.K.M. Pang, S. Zhou, S.K. Cowan, R.Y.C. Kong, T. Pfordte, B.R. Olsen, D. Sillence, P.P.L. Tam, & ¥K.S.E. Cheah (1997) Abnormal compartmentalization of cartilage matrix components in mice lacking collagen X: implications for function. J. Cell Biol.136, 459-471.
  • D.M. Bell, K.K.H. Leung, S.C. Wheatley, L.J. Ng, S. Zhou, K.W. Ling, M.H. Sham, P. Koopman, P.P.L. Tam & ¥K.S.E. Cheah (1997). S0X9 directly regulates the type II collagen gene. Nature Genetics 16,174-178.
  • L.J. Ng, S. Wheatley, A. McCormack, J. Conway-Campbell, J. Bowles, E. Wright, D.M. Bell, P. P. L. Tam, K.S.E. Cheah and P. Koopman (1997) SOX9 binds DNA, activates transcription and co-expresses with type II collagen during chondrogenesis in the mouse Developmental Biology 183, 108-121

¥Corresponding author; underlined KC lab member