"This Professorship is established in honour of our late father -- a man of integrity, a person of vision, a sower of seeds and an ardent supporter of education. He taught his family the value of compassion for those less fortunate, the importance of upholding principles of dedication and excellence, and the worthiness of fostering knowledge and research for the betterment of humankind. We hope this Professorship not only contributes to new knowledge, but also helps to put knowledge to good use, with academics and the community working together to seek solutions to improve the health of all. May our father’s remarkable example of hard work, dedication, compassion and action inspire us and help to make our world a healthier and better place to live."
Irene, Evelyn, Angeline, Emily, Linda, Sebastian, Patricia & Viola
Dexter H C Man Family Professorship in Medical Science
Professor Julian A Tanner is a biomedical scientist specializing in nucleic acid engineering and chemical biology. He earned a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, and completed his PhD in Biological Chemistry at Imperial College, London. He currently serves as Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He also serves as Director of the Common Core of HKU, and as Associate Dean (Health Sciences Education) at HKUMed.
Professor Tanner’s research focuses on nucleic acid engineering, in particular for the directed evolution of nucleic acid aptamers, which can be used in diagnostics, in therapeutics, and in drug delivery. His research team is highly interdisciplinary, integrating experimental approaches across biomedical sciences, chemistry and engineering to tackle major medical challenges. Presently, his team is developing new technologies for point-of-care diagnostics in several disease areas including for cancer and infectious disease. He is also investigating nanoscale nucleic acid architecture integrating molecular design to probing of structure and function by cryo-electron microscopy and other biophysical techniques. Such nanostructures can be used in drug delivery, in nanotechnology, and as laboratory tools for the tracking of RNA and other molecules in cells and tissues.
Professor Tanner has been awarded several honours and awards in both research and teaching. In research, he was awarded Outstanding Young Researcher Award (2016) Research Student Supervisor Award (2017), HKU. For his teaching leadership and innovation, awards include QS Reimagine Education Awards (2023), the Hong Kong UGC Teaching Team Award (2019), as well as several HKU teaching awards: Teaching Innovation Award (Team) (2023), Outstanding Teacher (Team) (2018), Outstanding Teacher Award (2015). He is committed to interdisciplinary learning particularly in his leadership of the Common Core of HKU, including the present effort to integrate AI as a fifth Area of Inquiry for the Common Core.
He has published over 100 academic manuscripts in leading journals, and is on the Editorial Board of Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids. He has supervised over 20 PhD students who have continued to a variety of successful careers. He is the author of the textbook “Essentials of Chemical Biology – Structures and Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules” published by Wiley (Second Edition, 2024).
Julian A Tanner
