RESEARCH

RESEARCH PROJECTS

FEATURE RESEARCH – Molecular and Translational Neuroscience


Scientific and medical advancements are closely intertwined, psychiatry is no exception. The addition of neuroscience to the department is recent but well primed – guided by our strong track record in community and clinical psychiatry, neuroscience could broaden our scope in investigating psychiatric illness, it also brings novel perspectives in our understanding of clinical phenomena and paves the road to novel intervention and treatment. This completes our department’s multi-pronged approach aiming at easing the sufferings of those who are mentally ill.

We have established a neuroscience laboratory as a platform for investigating normal and pathological brain functioning, diagnostics, and treatment. Intrinsically multidisciplinary, our neuroscientific studies would cover anatomical, functional, molecular, and theoretical aspects of neural circuitries that underlie clinical phenomena. Research in neural circuitries not only provides precise mechanistic explanations for brain functioning, but it will also lay the foundations essential for our goals in developing new diagnostics and therapeutics. In parallel, we develop humanized animal models and computational simulations to mimic pathological conditions, enabling us to dissect the intricate interactions between fundamental components of neuropathology and identify potential treatment avenues. Our laboratory also specializes in research methodology development, offering customized solutions for clinicians to extract as much information as possible from precious patient biological samples such as blood or tissues. This provides a unique advantage for our translational neuroscience-psychiatry research.

With a highly diverse but cooperative departmental structure, we hope our joined forces will steer one step further towards relieving the burdens of psychiatric illness.

Dr. Suk Ling MA
Prof. Y.K. WING
Dr. Y.P. Petrina LAU