Research Projects
Phd with PACE - Protein and Cell Engineering Laboratory


Programme(s) to which this project applies:
☑ MPhil/PhD ☒ MRes[Med] ☒ URIS

The PACE lab led by Ralf Jauch plays with the molecular switches that turn one cell into another cell. If we can understand how cells maintain and change their identity well enough, we will be able be able to reliably program cell states in a dish so they can be used for biomedical research and clinical applications. One of our aims is to make ‘old stem cells’ that help us to study aging and related diseases. Analogously we aim to decouple cell fate transitions from rejuvenation as safe way to repair tissues and organs. Our vision is that we can generate such cells with new methods to program the state and identity of cells – for example empowered by engineered proteins and RNAs, comprehensive factor libraries and the directed evolution in mammalian cells.

Professor R Jauch, School of Biomedical Sciences

Ralf Jauch joined the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong as Associate Professor in 2018. He did his undergraduate studies at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany, and the University of Manchester and obtained his PhD degree in 2005 at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. In 2006, he joined the Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, and stayed for seven years as a PostDoc and Research Scientist. From 2013-2018, he was a Principal Investigator at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he helped to set up the GIBH- Max Planck Center for Regenerative Biomedicine.

Biography
HKU Scholars Hub
Lab
ORCID
ralf@hku.hk

For more information or to express interest for this project, please email the supervisor or the specified contact point in the project description.  Interested candidates are advised to enclose with your email:

  1. your CV,
  2. a brief description of your research interest and experience, and
  3. two reference letters (not required for HKUMed UG students seeking MRes[Med]/URIS projects).

Information on the research programme, funding support and admission documentations could be referenced online at the Research Postgraduate Admissions website. General admission enquiries should be directed to rpgmed@hku.hk.

HKUMed MBBS students interested in the Master of Research in Medicine (MRes[Med]) programme may visit the programme website for more information.  

HKUMed UG students interested in the Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme (URIS) may visit the scheme’s website for more information. 

Research @ School of Biomedical Sciences