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My research has focused on Immunology of Infections and Chronic Inflammatory diseases. I obtained my PhD in Genetics at the University of Malaya in 1978. My first post-doctoral position was in the Department of Zoology, University College London (UCL) with Professor N.A. Mitchison, FRS. During my 7 years there, I generated monoclonal antibodies against herpes simplex virus (HSV) and cellular heat shock proteins (HSP) induced during HSV infection. I showed that HSV infection causes the accumulation of HSP (EMBO J, 1984) and a better understanding of the causal relationship between HSP and viral infection. I then discovered that helper T (Th) cells induced by HSV glycoprotein B protect mice against HSV infection (J. Exp. Med. 1985), extending the theoretical hapten-carrier effect of T and B cells into an in vivo infectious disease model with important implication in vaccine design. From 1989 as a scientific staff member at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) I embarked on HIV research as co-principal investigator with 4 other colleagues of multidisciplinary expertise, with a Medical Research Council AIDS Directed Research Programme Grant (£1,793,352) for "Development of vaccines for AIDS using the SIV-Macaque model”. Using my viral immunology expertise I made significant contribution to the vaccine design of fixed-cell vaccine (Lancet, 1990; Nature, 1991), culminating in my discovery that protection in the SIV-vaccinated monkeys correlates with anti-HLA class I response (J. Exp. Med., 1992). Since joining St. Bartholomew’s School of Medicine in 1993, first as senior lecture and then reader (2001), apart from my continuing AIDS research, I initiated a research programme on the role of cytokines and T cell subset function, a subject of critical importance to health and disease. My most significant contribution is the identification of Th1/Th2 cell markers in which I played a crucial role in their characterization in animal model (J. Exp. Med., 1998a, 1998b) and also in the human and clinical context (J. Clin. Invest. 1999). This series of work not only identified for the first time stable markers for Th1 and Th2 cells, the balance of which is crucial in health and disease, but also extended the Type 1 and Type 2 Th cell concept to CD8+ T cells, NK cells and NKT cells, with important implications in infections such as HIV, and chronic inflammatory diseases including psoriasis and atherosclerosis (J. Immunol. 2001). This research achievement has been recognized by international peer review with the award of a DSc from the University of London in 2002. More recently, my research has focussed mainly on atherosclerosis and psoriasis, supported by grants from the British Heart Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, with emphasis on studying the roles and interaction of Type 1 lymphocyte subsets, in particular NKT and Th cells, with vascular smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis (Circulation Research 2005). Currently it is on the role of the cytokines interleukin-18, IL-23 and IL-17/Th17 on atherogenesis during hypercholesterolemia. Together, my research has made significant contributions to our understanding of immunity to infection, inflammation and to fundamental Immunology with the result that I have been elected to serve as a member of the MRC College of Experts (2005-2009).
Key publications
- Chan, W.L., Pejnovic, N., Lee, C. and Al-Ali, N.A. (2001) Human IL-18 Receptor and ST2L are Stable and Selective Markers for the Respective Type 1 and Type 2 Circulating Lymphocytes. J. Immunol. 167: 1238- 1244.
- Carter, R.W., Sweet, M.J., Xu, D., Klemenz, R., Liew, F.Y. and W.L. Chan. (2001) Regulation of ST2L expression on T helper (Th) type 2 cells. Eur. J. Immunol. 31:2979-2985.
- Chan, W.L., Pejnovic, N., Liew, T.V., Lee, C.A., Groves, R. and Hamilton H. (2003) NKT cell subsets in infection and inflammation. Imm. Letts. 85:159-163.
- Chan, W.L., Pejnovic, N., Liew, T.V. and Hamilton H. (2005) Predominance of Th2 Response in Human Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm : Mistaken Identity for IL-4-Producing NK and NKT Cells? Cell. Immunol. 233: 109-114.
- Chan, W.L., Pejnovic, N, Hamilton, H., Liew, T.V., Popadic, D., Poggi, A. and Khan, S.M. (2005) Atherosclerotic Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and the Interaction between Autologous Human Plaque-Derived Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells, Type 1 NKT and Th Cells. Circ. Res. 96:675-683.
- Borzychowski A.M, Croy BA, Chan WL, Redman CW and Sargeant IL. (2005). Changes in Systemic type 1 and type 2 immunity in normal pregnancy and pre-eclampsia may be mediated by natural killer cells. Eur. J. Immunol. 35:3054-63.
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