CUHK Postdoctoral Fellowship in
Clinical Neurosciences
With the aim of nurturing CUHK scholars to be future world-class leaders in the field of untangling fundamental mechanisms and advancing treatment of neurological diseases, “Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neurosciences Programme” was launched to provide a platform for CUHK scholars to enhance their knowledge on research, expand their international collaboration network and develop future career on neuroscience development.
Established in 2018, CUHK has set aside HK$10 million funding in support of this 2-4-year Programme, with 1-2 years to take place in the University of Oxford and 1- 2 years in CUHK.
Lee Hysan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neurosciences
Sharing the same vision of nurturing future leaders in clinical neuroscience as CUHK, Lee Hysan Foundation (LHF) has generously made a donation to the University to establish the Lee Hysan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neurosciences.
Lee Hysan Foundation – Our Strategic Partner and Sponsor
As a long-standing supporter of Education, Lee Hysan Foundation has actively supported meaningful and impactful charity initiatives in Hong Kong for over 40 years.
Two outstanding fellows, Dr. Cindy LENG (Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics) and Dr. Idy HO (Research Associate, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care) were identified to join the programme as Lee Hysan Fellows. Dr. Bonnie Lam (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics) will join the programme starting July 2020.
Collaborations
The Fellowship is housed in CUHK and led by Prof. Vincent MOK - Mok Hing Yiu Professor of Medicine, Head of Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, CUHK.
This joint initiative was greatly supported by University of Oxford – a highly regarded world-class institution.
University of Oxford
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN)
NDCN is one of the leading and largest clinical neuroscience department in Europe, has a multidisciplinary workforce of close to 500 people. They build on a long history of research in neurology, brain imaging, eye disorders, and anaesthetics in Oxford and play an important role in developing the careers of young scientists.
Prof. Irene TRACEY (Warden, Merton College, Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience & Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford), the immediate former head of NDCN, is leading the Programme at Oxford.
Pembroke College
Founded in 1624, Pembroke College is a lively and ambitious intellectual community that serves the common good through the promotion of scholarship and research.
Fellows will have the privilege to be members of the Pembroke Senior Common Room, in which they can facilitate networking opportunities, accommodation, dining and library facilities.
Fellows
Dr. Stephen CHEN
Post-doctoral Fellow
School of Life Sciences
“Joining the Fellowship programme is one of my happiest memories. The fruitful experience here has broadened my horizon and gave me inspiration about my future career.”
Dr. Idy HO (Lee Hysan Fellow)
Research Associate
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
“The first year of Fellowship is a fruitful and wonderful year full of learning!”
Dr. Bonnie LAM (Lee Hysan Fellow)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Medicine & Therapeutics
"I am thrilled to be selected in the fellowship and to work with the director of the Oxford Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Prof. Heidi Johansen-Berg. I am looking forward to carrying on my research passion and applying state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques to understand to identify early biomarkers for dementia."
Dr. Cindy LENG (Lee Hysan Fellow)
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine & Therapeutics
“It is a rewarding experience working with Prof. Peter Rothwell and his team on Oxford Vascular Study, a flagship study at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences for prevention of stroke and dementia, and in the meantime it is also an adventure for me living in the beautiful and historical city of Oxford.”
Dr. Yaping LIU
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Psychiatry
"University of Oxford (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences) is a great place for living and learning, where I get huge amount of support in research and personal development.”
Supervisors
Prof. Heidi Johansen-Berg
Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging
University of Oxford
Prof. Irene TRACEY
Warden, Merton College
Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience & Pro-Vice-Chancellor
University of Oxford
Prof. Matthew CHAN
Professor, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Peter ROTHWELL
Head, Centre for the Prevention of Stroke and Dementia
Professor of Clinical Neurology
University of Oxford
Prof. Vincent MOK
Head of Division of Neurology
Mok Hing Yiu Professor of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Thomas LEUNG
Lee Quo Wei Professor of Neurology
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Kevin TALBOT
Head of Department and Professor of Motor Neuron
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
University of Oxford
Prof. Edwin CHAN
Professor, School of Life Sciences
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Michele HU
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Consultant Neurologist
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
University of Oxford
Prof. WING Yun Kwok
Chairman & Professor, Department of Psychiatry
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. ZHANG Jihui
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Events
CUHK supervisors visited Oxford in June 2019 to catch up with the fellows and Oxford supervisors on the programme progress. Collaborations on CUHK – Oxford neuroscience development were discussed.
This is not only a collaboration meeting, but also a CUHK-Oxford family reunion!
“A close monitor and timely progress review with our collaboration partner is a key success to the establishment of this Fellowship Programme.” - Prof. Vincent Mok
Ms. Nancy Braithwaite, Academic Director of Pembroke College visited the Division of Neurology of CUHK in September 2018 at which collaboration directions were discussed.
A fruitful visit from Pembroke College was held in March 2018. CUHK and Pembroke College have been working closely to establish a wide spectrum of national and cross-strait joint projects. Establishing the Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme in Neuroscience is one of the key projects.
With the vision of making major global advancement in neuroscience and fostering long-standing partnership between scientists from the UK and HK, an Exploratory Workshop was successfully held in 2017 to explore the potential research and educational collaboration on the establishment of Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme in Neuroscience.
Achievements
- Dr. Cindy LENG, PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau; Reference No. 07180366; funding amount HKD99,965; project duration 2020.4-2021.3. (recommended to support—rated score 4 over scores 1-4; final results pending)
Project title: Impact of blood pressure variations on focal and global cerebral hemodynamics in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis: a pilot study with patient-specific computational fluid dynamics modeling - Dr. Cindy LENG, PI, General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council; Ref No. 14106019; funding amount HKD884,770; project duration 2020.1-2022.12
Project title: Progression of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease: an interplay between plaque morphology and fluid dynamics - Dr. Cindy LENG, PI, Direct Grant, the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Ref No. 2018.035; funding amount HKD120,477; project duration 2019.6-2020.6
Project title: Risk stratification of TIA or minor stroke using artificial neural network
- Chen, Z.S., Huang, X., Talbot, K. and Chan, H.Y.E. A fine balance between Prpf19 and Exoc7 in achieving degradation of aggregated protein and cell death in polyglutamine degeneration. (Manuscript under review at Cell Death & Disease). Imapct Factor: 5.959.
- Chen, Z.S.*, Wong, A.K.Y.*, Cheng, T.C., Koon, A.C. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2019). FipoQ, a Cullin-1 based ubiquitin ligase complex component modulates ubiquitination of polyglutamine protein and modifies toxicity in vivo. Journal of Neurochemistry. 149, 781-798. *Co-first authors. (Featured on the cover of the issue). Impact Factor: 4.870.
- Zhang, Q., An, Y., Chen, Z.S., Koon, A.C., Lau, K.F., Ngo, J.C. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2019). A peptidylic inhibitor for neutralizing r(GGGGCC)exp-associated neurodegeneration in C9ALS/FTD. Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids. 16, 172-185. Impact Factor: 5.919.
- Chen, Z.S.^ and Chan, H.Y.E. (2019). Transcriptional dysregulation in neurodegenerative diseases: Who tipped the balance of Yin Yang 1 in the brain? Neural Regeneration Research. 14, 1148-1151. ^Corresponding author. Impact Factor: 2.472.
- Hong, H.*, Koon, A.C.*, Chen, Z.S.*, Wei, Y., An, Y., Li, W., Lau, M.H.Y., Lau, K.F., Ngo, J.C.K., Wong, C.H., Au-Yeung, H.Y., Zimmerman, S.C. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2019). A bisamidine-based inhibitor that reduces protein aggregation and ameliorates toxicity in polyglutamine disease models. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 294, 2757-2770. *Co-first authors. (Featured on the cover of the issue). Impact Factor: 4.106.
- Leńska-Mieciek, M., Charzewska, A., Królicki, L., Hoffman-Zacharska, D., Chen, Z.S., Lau, K.F., Chan, H.Y.E., Gambin, T. and Fiszer, U. (2019). Familial ataxia, tremor and dementia in a Polish family with a novel mutation in the CCDC88C gene. Movement Disorders. 34, 142-144. Impact Factor: 8.222.
- Koon, A.C., Chen, Z.S., Peng, S., Fung, J.M.S., Zhang, X., Lembke, K.M., Chow, H.K., Frank, C.A., Jiang, L.W., Lau, K.F. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2018). Drosophila Exo70 is essential for neurite extension and survival. Journal of Neuroscience. 38, 8071-8086. Impact Factor: 6.074.
- Chen, Z.S., Li, L., Peng, S., Chen, F.M., Zhang, Q., An, Y., Lin, X., Li, W., Koon, A.C., Chan, T.F., Lau, K.F., Ngo, J.C., Wong, W.T., Kwan, K.M. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2018). Planar cell polarity gene Fuz triggers apoptosis in neurodegenerative disease models. EMBO Reports. 19, e45409. Impact Factor: 8.383.
- Zhang, Q., Chen, Z.S., An, Y., Liu, H., Hou, Y., Li, W., Lau, K.F., Koon, A.C., Ngo, J.C. and Chan, H.Y.E. (2018). A peptidylic inhibitor for neutralizing expanded CAG RNA-induced nucleolar stress in polyglutamine diseases. RNA. 24, 486-498. Impact Factor: 4.94.
- Wang YL, Leng X (2nd out of 11 authors), Dong Y, Hou XH, Tong L, Ma YH, Xu W, Cui M, Dong Q, Tan L, Yu JT. Fasting glucose and HbA1c levels as risk factors for the presence of intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis. Annals of Translational Medicine. Accepted for publication on 11 November 2019. Impact factor: 3.689.
- Feng X, Leung TW, Leng X. Response by Feng et al to letter regarding article, “stroke mechanisms in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease: classification and clinical implications”. Stroke. 2019. Published online before print on 13 November 2019. Impact factor: 6.046.
- Feng X, Chan KL, Lan L, Abrigo J, Fang H, Xu Y, Soo Y, Leng X (corresponding author), Leung TW (co-corresponding author). Classifying stroke mechanisms in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease: the reproducibility and clinical correlates. Stroke. 2019;50:2692-2699. Impact factor: 6.046.
- Leng X (corresponding author), Lan L (co-1st author), Ip HL, Abrigo J, Scalzo F, Liu H, Feng X, Chan KL, Fan FS, Ma SH, Fang H, Xu Y, Li J, Zhang B, Xu Y, Soo YO, Mok VC, Yu SC, Liebeskind DS, Wong KS, Leung TW (co- corresponding author). Hemodynamics and stroke risk in intracranial atherosclerotic disease. Ann Neurol. 2019;85:752-764. Impact factor: 9.496.
- Chan KL, Leng X (corresponding author), Zhang W, Dong W, Qiu Q, Yang J, Soo Y, Wong KS, Leung TW, Liu J (co-corresponding author). Early identification of high-risk TIA or minor stroke using artificial neural network. Front Neurol. 2019;10:171. Impact factor: 2.635.
- Chen, Z.S., Dafinca, R., Patani, R. and Talbot, K. Modelling cortical motor neuron pathology in induced pluripotent stem cell derived neurons from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND, 2019. Poster presentation.
- Leng X, Hurford R, Feng X, Chan KL, Li L, Mok VCT, Leung TW, Rothwell PM. Differences between Caucasians and Asians in intracranial arterial stenosis among TIA and minor stroke patients: comparisons of two contemporary cohorts. International Stroke Conference 2020. 19-21/1/2020, Los Angeles, CA, the United States. Accepted for oral presentation.
- Feng X, Chan KL, Abrigo J, Lan L, Soo Y, Leung TW, Leng X. Translesional pressure gradient alters the relationship between blood pressure and stroke recurrence in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease. International Stroke Conference 2020. International Stroke Conference 2020. 19-21/1/2020, Los Angeles, CA, the United States. Accepted for oral presentation.
- Feng X, Chan KL, Abrigo J, Lan L, Xu Y, Fang H, Soo Y, Leung TW, Leng X. Symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis: the associations between cerebral hemodynamics and the stroke mechanisms International Stroke Conference 2020. International Stroke Conference 2020. 19-21/1/2020, Los Angeles, CA, the United States. Accepted for poster presentation.
- Leng X. Computational fluid dynamics and fractional flow. International Conference on Intracranial Atherosclerosis (ICAS 2019), 2-4/11/2019, Los Angeles, the United States. Invited speaker.
- Leng X, Lan L, Ip HL, Abrigo J, Scalzo F, Liu H, Feng X, Chan KL, Fan FSY, Ma SH, Fang H, Xu Y, Li J, Zhang B, Xu Y, Soo YOY, Mok VCT, Yu SCH, Liebeskind DS, Wong KS, Leung TW. Hemodynamics and stroke risk in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease. 5th European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC 2019), 22-24/5/2019, Milan, Italy. Poster presentation.
- Liu Y, Early neurodegenerative biomarker starts in individual with prodromal REM sleep behaviour disorder. International RBD Study Group Meeting. Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct 3-5, 2019.