Sunny Chan

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Credentials

PhD

Bio

Dr. Sunny Chan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Blood and Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy. Dr. Chan received his BSc in Pharmacology (1998) and BASc in Computer Engineering (2001) from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and PhD in Pharmacology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2005. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and at the University of Minnesota in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Kyba. Dr. Chan joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 2015.

Research Summary

Dr. Chan’s research focuses on regenerative medicine for muscular dystrophies using cardiac and skeletal myogenic progenitors derived from pluripotent stem cells. He is developing methods to model cardiopharyngeal mesoderm, a cell population that forms second heart field and head muscle cells. The goal is to produce cell types appropriate for studying the physiology of muscular dystrophies specific to second heart field and head muscles in vitro and for developing cellular therapy targeting these diseases in vivo.