Biophysical Society Bulletin | October 2024

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Donald C. Chang Area of Research

Institution Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for detecting cancer, bio-photonics, cell signaling, and electro poration

At-a-Glance

Donald C. Chang grew up in Hong Kong as a refugee from a small town in southern China. He faced many challenges as a child refugee but received a quality education, which helped him find his pas sion for scientific research. He was a founding professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he now serves as Professor Emeritus.

Donald C. Chang

Donald C. Chang was born in a small town in southern China, now part of the city of Shenzhen, near the border with Hong Kong. His father was a rice merchant and his mother a home maker. He faced adversity from a young age, however, and did not grow up with his parents. He explains, “When I was a primary school student, my family was persecuted during the land-reform movement. I was forced to escape to Hong Kong. Fortunately, with the help of a relative there, I was accepted by a refugee school. Although Hong Kong was a booming city, the refugee school was in an isolated suburban area by the sea. The living conditions and my childhood life were very simple. I had to face challenges just on my own; it was tough. Fortunately, I had a good education.” Chang became interested in science as a child studying at the refugee school. He shares, “As a child refugee, I did not have the benefit of growing up with my parents. So, my start in science was purely by interest. When I was a high school student, I loved to read popular science publications, including reports in newspapers and popular science books. Also, I was strongly influenced by two high school teachers; one taught me biology in the 7th grade, and another taught me physics in the 9th grade. They were very inspiring. I decided to study sci ence because I was highly curious about how nature works.” Chang was an exceptionally good student and was given the opportunity—and scholarships—to study physics at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. He states, “After getting a bachelor’s degree in physics, I was fortunate to receive a fellowship to come to the United States to study at Rice University in Houston, Texas. I spent five years there and ob tained a master’s and a PhD degree, both in physics. The one who helped me to start in the area of biophysics was my PhD advisor, Professor H.E. Rorschach . He was a physics professor at Rice University and was very kind to me.” He continues, “When I decided to move into the field of biophysics, there was no biophysics study at Rice Univer sity. We had to develop everything from scratch. Professor Rorschach supported me wholeheartedly during this process.

He generously offered me lab space and equipment so that I could start my research work. I converted a spin-echo NMR spectrometer I built for studying quantum physics to study biological cells. I collaborated with a young physiologist, Pro fessor C.F. Hazlewood at Baylor College of Medicine.” After the completion of Chang’s PhD, he pursued postdoc toral work, primarily at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University. He explains, “After I finished my PhD degree, I used my expertise in physics to start doing biophysics work. This work involved faculty in the Physiology Department of Baylor College of Medicine and the Physics Department of Rice Uni versity. I also spent some summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I took two special courses there, one on neurobiology, another on embryology.” In the early 1990s, he moved to a new university, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), where he was a founding professor, and later a professor chair. He now serves as a professor emeritus at HKUST, due to age restric tions for researchers in Hong Kong. His current work is mainly in theoretical biophysics, quantum physics, and quantum biology. Chang has made several important contributions to the field of biophysics. The first was helping to establish the physical basis of using NMR for cancer detection. Magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful technique for detecting cancer, based on the discovery that the NMR relaxation times of water pro tons are closely related to the physiological and pathological state of the tissue. Chang is a major contributor in this work; he was among the earliest investigators in using spin-echo NMR to study the physical properties of water inside biologi cal cells. He is also a major contributor in the development of elec troporation technology, an important tool for the develop ment of gene therapy, which has the potential to cure many diseases, including cancer. He was a pioneer in applying the pulsed electric field to permeabilize the cell membrane so

October 2024

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