Prof. Chow, received his PhD in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He was a Belfer Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine before joining HKUST. His own research focuses on molecular genetics of body patterning, neural development, synthetic and evolutionary biology, and he runs a laboratory with diverse model organisms. He experimented extensive on various teaching pedagogy including exploratory project course, MOOC and extensive flipped classes, and was awarded the Science School Teaching Award and the Michael G. Gale Medal of distinguished teaching at HKUST. He also heads the Center for Development of the Gifted and Talented nurturing gifted students. Over the years, he has set up a number of successful undergraduate and graduate programs, e.g., Mol. Biomed. Sci., Bioengineering, Individualized Indterdisciplinary Major, etc.  He served as Academic Director of the Common Core Program, the Director of Interdisciplinary Programs Office overseeing the development of Environment, Sustainability, Public Policy, Technology Management, Risk Management and Business Intelligence, as well as currently as the Dean of Students.

Research Question

Research in Prof. Chow’s lab centers on a broad spectrum of developmental questions including body patterning, organ assembly, morphogenesis, chemosensory control of mating behavior and evolution.

The lab uses Caenorhabditis elegans as a primary genetic model to examine how body shape and sensory organs are shaped by multiple genetic components acting in the BMP signaling pathway and a transcription factors network. Both biochemical and genetic approaches are adopted to dissect these functions and their mode of operation, which are also evaluated in cell culture and other vertebrate models to confirm their biological relevance.

The nematode sensory rays and cephalic neurons are used as the experimental paradigms for studying the establishment of form and shape of organs as well as their cellular connectivity. A handful of components encoding products that control proper matrix organization, paracrine signaling, cell adhesion, and intracellular signaling that eventually determine the functionality of male-specific sensory and cephalic neurons are under investigation. These genetic factors contribute to the success of locating mating partner and executing the stereotyped mating behavior.

Representative Publications

1. Wan, X., Zhou, Y., Chan, C.M., Yang, H.N., Yeung, C. and Chow, K.L. (2019) SRD-1 is a chemoreceptor for nematode volatile female sex pheromone acting in male AWA neurons. EMBO Report DOI:10.15252/embr.201846288
2. Lee, J.T.Y., Wang, K., Tsang, S.W.H. Chow, K.L. (2011) Comparative in vitro osteoinductivity study of CaP ceramics (HA, alpha-TCP, beta-TCP) using 10T1/2 cells with different controls and possible correlations with other systems. Journal of Biomaterials and Nano-Biotechnology 2:121-130
3. Wong, Y.F., Sheng, Q., Chung, J.W.L., Chan, J.K.F. and Chow, K.L. (2010) mab-31 functions at TGF-β signal-receiving cells for sensory ray patterning in C. elegans male tail development. BMC Developmental Biology Aug 5;10(1):82
4. Wong, Y.F., Ko, F.C.F., Cheah, K.S.E. and Chow, K.L. (2007) crm-1 facilitates BMP signaling to control the body size in C. elegans. Developmental Biology 311:95-105
5. Chasnov, J.R., So, Q.W.K., Chan, G.C.M. and Chow, K.L. (2007) The species-, sex-, and stage-specificity of a Caenorhabditis sex pheromone. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 6730-6735