Kathryn Cheah is a developmental geneticist. She received her PhD in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge, UK, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manchester and Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK.

She was awarded a Croucher Foundation Senior Fellowship (2000) and is an elected Fellow of the Global Academy for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). In 2021, she was elected as Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the British Society for Matrix Biology Medal Lecture 2022 for her contributions to matrix biology.

The driving motivation of her research is the realisation that, with an ageing population worldwide, genomic and regenerative medicine will play critical roles in helping to preserve healthy growth and quality of life. She uses human and mouse embryonic stem cells and genetically modified mice as models to study development and disease and develop therapeutic approaches for disorders of cartilage (e.g. osteoarthritis), low bone mass (e.g. osteoporosis) and intervertebral disc degeneration.

She and her team pioneered the introduction of transgenic and knockout mouse technology to Greater China and Hong Kong.

Cheah is passionate about contributing to the public and professional understanding of science and promoting the international profile of Hong Kong science through organising international symposia and Croucher Foundation Advanced Study Institutes. She has served as Biology & Medicine Panel member on the Research Grants Council and as Biology Panel Member for the University Grants Committee Research Assessment exercises. She is currently a panel member of the Health and Medical Research Fund.

Internationally, she is senior editor for eLife and also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research as an editorial advisor for emerging topics in life sciences. She also sits on the advisory board of Natural Sciences.

Cheah was elected President of the International Society for Matrix Biology from 2006–2008 and was the founding President of the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology (HKSDB) from 2004–2013. She was the Hong Kong representative for the Asia-Pacific Developmental Biology Network and the International Society of Developmental Biology. In addition, she was appointed Senior External Fellow of the University of Freiberg Institute of Advanced Studies from 2011–2012 and was an elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Differentiation from 2012–2018. Currently, she serves on the Hong Kong Advisory Board of the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) and the GRC Board of Trustees Conference Evaluation Committee.

Cheah was Chair of the Bid Committee for the ISSCR (International Society for Stem Cell Research) Annual Meeting 2025 in Hong Kong. Currently, she serves as co-chair with Eugenia Piddini of the ISSCR 2025 programme committee.