Research Projects
Unraveling the pleiotropic effects of diabetic medications using genomics and proteomics

Several diabetic medications reported to have effects beyond glycemic control, including weight reduction, reduced risk of cardiometabolic diseases, kidney diseases and cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and some of these pharmacological studies are vulnerable to confounding and biases. 

Student(s) working on this project will utilize large scale genomic and proteomic markers to interrogate the causal role of putative targets of medication in these disease risk and the underlying mechanistic pathways, which will provide more credible evidence in understanding drug mechanism and drug reposition opportunities.

Professor RSL Au Yeung, School of Public Health

Professor Au Yeung Shiu Lun Ryan is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He received his MPH (with distinction) and PhD from the University of Hong Kong. He has more than 10 year of experiences in conducting epidemiologic research related to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and drug reposition opportunities using population genetics, a method known as Mendelian randomization, where he pioneered the use of this method to investigate potential drug reposition of metformin in healthy longevity. He is also the academic lead of the School’s flagship birth cohort (“Children of 1997”), which has curated genomic and metabolomic data for life course epidemiologic research. He is currently an editorial board member of 4 international journals, including BMC Medicine and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

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.