Programme(s) to which this project applies: |
☑ MPhil/PhD | ☒ MRes[Med] | ☒ URIS |
Systems biology is a field that is highly inter-disciplinary in nature, which involves molecular and cellular biology, genomics, structural biology, microfluidics, informatics and mathematic modelling. This integration and harmony in diversity indicates a generous openness towards innovative ideas and a holistic approach to answer fundamental questions in cell biology. Employing systems biology approaches, our lab aims at characterising virus-host interactions and applying the insight with the use of high throughput platform to precisely design novel vaccines and therapies. Holding such mission, we have developed multiple high-throughput platforms, which enable us to define functional sequences in the entire viral genome at single nucleotide resolution, to identify viral-host protein complexes with low-abundance at whole proteome scale and to engineer proteins by in vitro evolution. (Du Y et al, Nature communication 2020) Equipped with these platforms, we would be able to serve both the scientific community and the general public with novel vaccine and therapeutic development. We are particularly interested in viruses that have immense impact on human society, such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza A virus, human immune-deficient virus (HIV) and Epstein-Barr Virus etc.
Project directions:
Professor R Sun, School of Biomedical Sciences
Professor Ren Sun obtained his PhD and got trained as postdoctoral and research scientist at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University. He then joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an assistant, associate and then full professor. Prof Sun was honoured as Distinguished Professor at UCLA in 2018 and served as Associate Dean of David Geffen School of Medicine and Associate Vice Provost of UCLA from 2009 to 2019. He values bidirectional learning and spearheaded a reform to introduce interactive flipped learning for the graduate studies program back in UCLA. Prof Sun is experienced in training postgraduates and has mentored 20 and 27 PhD and postdoctoral fellows over the years. Prof Sun has recently moved his lab to the University of Hong Kong. Prof Sun’s research interests span across virus-host interactions, genomics, single cell biology and, protein structure and engineering. He is one of the leaders using system biology, high-throughput genetics, multi-omics and nano-technology approaches to precisely define viral-host interactions.
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:
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.
Follow HKUMed