Cancer, Stem Cell Biology, Traditional Chinese Medicine
Interaction between cancer cells and microenvironment
Clinical studies on childhood neurogenic tumour (brain tumour, neuroblastoma)
Biology and application of human mesenchymal stem cells
Clinical studies on haemopoietic stem cells transplantation
Effects of purified novel herbal extracts polysaccharides on human immune and cancer cells, including β-glucans
Clinical study on thalassaemia and iron overload
Clinical Genetics and Genomics
Medical application of whole-genome technologies: Using cutting-edge technologies including copy number variants (CNV) arrays, whole exome/genome sequencing and detailed phenotypic evaluation, to identify novel variants/genes involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases
Clinical genetics and genetic counselling: Disease burden, clinical manifestations and natural history of genetic syndromes; communication/discourse analysis in genetic counselling in different clinical settings including inherited arrhythmia clinics, prenatal diagnosis, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (in collaboration with Dr Olga Zayts, School of English, HKU)
Epigenetics and human diseases: Using various technologies including bisulphite-converted DNA pyrosequencing, MLPA and whole genome DNA methylation arrays, we study various common and rare disorders in which epigenetics or imprinting is implicated in the pathogenesis
Disease burden, epidemiology and risk factors of common developmental disorders e.g. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders, autism and developmental delay etc
Validation of developmental assessment tools and assessment tools for screening of childhood emotional, behavioral difficulties and learning disorders
Using advance neuroimaging techniques e.g. Diffusion kurtosis/ tensor imaging, fMRI or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to diagnose, prognosticate and manage children with developmental disorders or brain injuries
New rehabilitation methods to improve the outcomes of children with disabilities
Cancer survivorship
Outcomes of children with acquired brain injuries
Epstein-Barr Virus Biology
Host-virus interactions in primary and persistent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and on the elucidation of pathogenic mechanisms of EBV in lymphoid and epithelial cancers
Role of adaptive immune responses in the control of EBV: longitudinal study of viral loads, humoral and CD8+ T cell responses in patients with primary EBV infection, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders and EBV-associated haemophagocytic syndrome
Sequence analysis of EBV strains in EBV infection subjects and EBV-positive tumours
Action of different compounds in inducing the lytic cycle of EBV in cancer cells and investigation of mechanistic pathways of viral lytic cycle induction
Immunology
Cord blood dendritic cell and T cell development; mannose-binding lectin; single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and short tandem repeats (STRs) in immunological and infectious diseases; vaccines study disease; epidemiology of allergic diseases
Immune responses to respiratory pathogens, such as human and avian flu, SARS-CoV, RSV/hMPV and mycobacteria.
Roles of mannose binding lectin in infection and immunity
Lupus pathogenesis – how tolerance is breached
Viral immunology: Innate and adaptive immune responses to viral infections, such as human and avian influenza A viruses in both human and mouse models including humanised mice
Transplantation immunology: Biology of human regulatory T cells and their application in transplantation, autoimmune diseases. Viral infection and solid organ transplantation
Host defence and immune regulation
Molecular mechanisms of susceptibility to bacterial and fungal infections in primary immunodeficiency disorders
Inflammasomes: immunopathogenesis in monogenic autoinflammatory syndromes, systemic lupus erythematosis and infectious diseases
Autophagy as a mechanism of host defence and immune regulation in infectious disease and autoinflammatory disorders
Infectious Diseases
Disease burden and epidemiology of respiratory viruses in children
Epidemiology, clinical manifestation and immune responses of influenza infection in children
Intradermal vaccination of influenza vaccination
Human herpesvirus-6 and -7 infection – clinical and epidemiology aspects
Patterns of antimicrobial resistance – Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in HK
Molecular Basis of Mammalian Development and Genetic Diseases
Molecular control of development and how abnormalities in this process lead to diseases. In particular, novel genes that affect chromatin structure and regulate the expression of a number of genes in neurons
Genetic studies of monogenic diseases; genetic studies of complex diseases especially on autoimmune disorders (for students with a background in medicine or biological sciences)
Association studies, linkage analysis, exome- and whole-genome sequencing and other cutting-edge technologies as tools to uncover genes involved in various human diseases
Genomic data analysis, bioinformatics and statistical genetics (for students with a computing or statistics background):
Computational tools, statistics and data modelling to analyse large amounts of genetics and genomics data and also develop novel tools in these areas
Paediatric Cardiovascular Research
Arterial function in children and adolescents in health and disease
Ventricular function in congenital heart disease and after its surgical repair
Ventriculo-arterial interaction
Genetics of congenital and acquired heart disease in the young
Paediatric Neurology Research
Rare paediatric neuromuscular disorders: Genetic diagnosis, genotypic-phenotypic correlation, patient registry and the impact of new therapies
Stem cell research for the translational aspects of neuromuscular disorders: Use of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells differentiated affected target tissues as disease model to study the underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic treatment, mainly focus on dystrophinopathy
Rare paediatric immune-mediated neurological disorders: epidemiology, clinical characteristics, immunological profile and clinical outcome of autoimmune encephalitis and acquired peripheral neuropathies
