Professor Dennis Lo
Professor Rossa Chiu
Professor Allen K C Chan
Professor Nelson Tang
Professor Chun Kwok Wong
Professor Hao Sun
Professor Kathy Lui
Professor Sung Wing Kin
Professor Peiyong Jiang
Professor Peter Cheung
Professor Hei Ming Lai
Professor Jacky Lam
Professor Guanhua Zhu
Professor Chun Kit Choi
Professor Mingyuan Li
Professor Jason Liao
Professor Qing Zhou
Professor Nirmal Panesar
Professor Chung Shun Ho
Dr Michael H M Chan
Dr Angel Chan
 
 
 
Nelson Tang 鄧亮生
Professor 教授
nelsontang@cuhk.edu.hk
Biography
Positions Held:
Current
中华预防医学会出生缺陷预防与控制专委会新生儿遗传代谢病筛查学组成員
Current
Executive Committee Member, Hong Kong Branch of CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Current
Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Genetics of Disease Susceptibility, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, CUHK
Current
Member, The Board of Trustees of United College, CUHK
Current
Principal Investigator, Functional Genomics and Biostatistical Computing Laboratory, CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China
Current
Course coordinator of BMEG 5790 Bioinformatics in MSc porgram in Biomedical Engineering
Current
Member of Preclinical Education Committee
Current
Member, Grant Review Board of Health and Medical Research Fund, Hong Kong SAR Government
Current
Primary Supervisor of training in Genetic Pathology for Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) at Prince of Wales Hospital
Current
Member, Editorial Board of the journal Pathology
Current
2009, 2013, 2023 Committee member, Manual Transformation Steering Committee, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
2023 Overseas Examiner of Genetics Pathology for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA)
2021
Grant proposal reviewer for 國家自然科學基金委員
2018
Working Group on Colorectal and Breast Cancer Screening for High Risk Groups, Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR Government
2009 - 2014
Scientific Editor, Catalogue of Genetic Tests and Laboratories, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
2005 - 2012
Member, Advisory Committee of Genetics Pathology in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA)
2005 - 2010
Panel Coordinator of teaching panel in medical curriculum: Mechanisms of Disease and Therapeutic Approaches
2007
Honorary Professor, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an China
Scholarship and Awards:
2003 / 04
Sir Robert Black Trust Fund Scholarship for a sabbatical to Strangeways Research Laboratory, University of Cambridge
 
Professor Tang graduated with a MBChB degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991. He was admitted to Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) in 1997. Prof. Tang joined CUHK in 1996. He was then conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 2002. He was awarded a scholarship by the Sir Robert Black Trust Fund for a sabbatical leave to the Strangeways Research Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK.
 
Prof. Tang started the first metabolic clinic in Hong Kong to take care of patients with various inborn errors of metabolism, which are rare genetic diseases in children, more than 20 years ago. His research team has contributed to the discovery of the disease gene causing Primary Carnitine Deficiency (named by Prof. Tang as 卡尼丁缺乏症 in Chinese which has become the standard Chinese medical term now). His discovery has facilitated the molecular diagnosis of this disease and more than 1,000 patients of this rare disease have been diagnosed and treated all over Mainland China and Asia. The molecular protein structure is shown at the end of the webpage.
 
Professor Tang is also the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Genetics of Disease Susceptibility in the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences. The team investigates the genetic basis of polygenic diseases, also known as complex traits. Long term collaborations with international researchers have led to many new insights in various complex traits, such as genetics basis in Scoliosis which have inspired new treatment modalities. Recently, he has developed new analysis algorithms in bioinformatics and genetic statistics using cloud computing which enable determination of gene expression of a single cellular population from bulk data of cell mixtures. This invention is instrumental in the development of future blood biomarker tests and has been awarded the Gold Medal in the 2021 Geneva Invention Expo and a Silver Award in a patent portfolio competition in the Greater Bay Area.
 
Prof. Tang has held various professional and academic positions, for example, serving on the Advisory Committee of Genetic Pathology in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA), being an editor of RCPA Catalogue of Genetic Tests and Laboratories and Pathology Manual and an examiner in the Fellowship examination for RCPA. Prof. Tang is a member of the Grant Review Board of Health and Medical Research Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government. He is regularly invited to review grant proposals for Research Grant Council (HK) and various grant bodies in Mainland China, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Africa, Poland etc. He supervised more than 20 postgraduate students at both master and doctorial levels. Prof. Tang has been on the examination boards of graduate schools in many universities to examine PhD students, for example, the University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Peking University, University of Sydney etc. He reviewed more than 50 journal manuscripts for various renowned Journals in the past 3 years.
Research interests:
1.
Genetic Susceptibility of common diseases (also known as complex traits), e.g. Scoliosis, Diabetes, etc. Prof. Tang is among the top 10 cited authors in the field of Complex traits according to Google Scholar.
2.
New algorithms in Bioinformatics and genetic statistics: single cell population gene expression and genetic interaction. A log-linear model statistical algorithm (BOOST) for gene-gene interaction detection has been incorporated into commonly used GWAS software (e.g. PLINK).
3.
Inborn errors of metabolism: Carnitine deficiency and Wilson's disease.
   
Patents:
Determination of gene expression levels of a cell type, US9589099B2
Method for determining the copy number of a tandem repeat sequence, US11639521B2
 
 
 
 
 
 
Links to publications:
鄧亮生@全球學者庫
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Pubmed
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3607-5819
Scopus
Web of Science author search
 
 
 
 
 
 
Book Editor:
Chemical Diagnostics: From Bench to Bedside (in the series of Topics in Current Chemistry, Vol. 336). L.S. Tang, Nelson; Poon, Terence (Eds.) Publisher: Springer; 2014. ISBN-10: 364239941X (Top 25% most downloaded eBooks in the relevant Springer eBook Collection)
 
12 selected publication among > 300 publications
Tang N, Zheng YT, Zhao H, Chan WY, Yao YG (2023). Editorial: A brief review of the long-term partnership between Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in bioresources and molecular research. Zoological Research, 44: 556 - 558.
Xiao FH, Wang HT, Chen XQ, et al (2023). Hypermethylation in H3K9me3 regions characterizes the centenarian methylomes in healthy aging. Natl Sci Rev. 2023 Mar 9;10(6):nwad067.
Tang, N. L., Hui, J., Huang, D., Tang, M. F., Wang, X., Wu, J., Chan, I. H. S., Leung, T. F. (2020). Reference intervals of spot urine copper excretion in preschool children and potential application in pre-symptomatic screening of Wilson disease. Pathology, 52(4):439-446. Pre-print available here
Styrkarsdottir, U., Stefansson, O. A., Gunnarsdottir, K., et al. (2019). GWAS of bone size yields twelve loci that also affect height, BMD, osteoarthritis or fractures. Nature Communications, 10(1), 2054. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09860-0
Styrkarsdottir, U., Helgason, H., Sigurdsson, A., et al. (2017). Whole-genome sequencing identifies rare genotypes in COMP and CHADL associated with high risk of hip osteoarthritis. Nature Genetics, 49(5), 801–805. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3816
Styrkarsdottir, U., Thorleifsson, G., Gudjonsson, S. A., et al. (2016). Sequence variants in the PTCH1 gene associate with spine bone mineral density and osteoporotic fractures. Nature Communications, 7, 10129. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10129
Zhu, Z., Tang, N. L.-S., Xu, L., et al. (2015). Genome-wide association study identifies new susceptibility loci for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in Chinese girls. Nature Communications, 6, 8355. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9355
Estrada, K., Styrkarsdottir, U., Evangelou, E., et al. (2012). Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 56 bone mineral density loci and reveals 14 loci associated with risk of fracture. Nature Genetics, 44(5), 491–501. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2249
Wan, X., Yang, C., Yang, Q., Xue, H., Fan, X., Tang, N. L. S., & Yu, W. (2010). BOOST: A fast approach to detecting gene-gene interactions in genome-wide case-control studies. American Journal of Human Genetics, 87(3), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.07.021
Khor, C. C., Vannberg, F. O., Chapman, S. J., et al. (2010). CISH and susceptibility to infectious diseases. The New England Journal of Medicine, 362(22), 2092–2101. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa0905606
Woo, J., Tang, N., Suen, E., Leung, J., & Wong, M. (2009). Green space, psychological restoration, and telomere length. Lancet (London, England), 373(9660), 299–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60094-5
Tang, N. L.-S., Chan, P. K.-S., Hui, D. S.-C., To, K.-F., Zhang, W., Chan, F. K. L., Sung, J. J.-Y., & Lo, Y. M. D. (2007). Lack of support for an association between CLEC4M homozygosity and protection against SARS coronavirus infection. Nature Genetics, 39(6), 691–692. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0607-691 
 
Detailed CV with full publication list of Prof Tang updated in October 2023
 
(3D protein structure of the carnitine transporter OCTN2, prepared by ML Ou)
 
 
The Chinese University of Hong Kong