The driving motivation of her research is the realisation that, with an ageing population worldwide, genomic and regenerative medicine will play critical roles in helping to preserve healthy growth and quality of life. She uses human and mouse embryonic stem cells and genetically modified mice as models to study development and disease and develop therapeutic approaches for disorders of cartilage (e.g. osteoarthritis) and low bone mass (e.g. osteoporosis) and intervertebral disc degeneration.
She and her team pioneered the introduction of transgenic and knockout mouse technology to Greater China and Hong Kong.
She is passionate about contributing to the public and professional understanding of science and promoting the international profile of Hong Kong science through organizing international symposia and Croucher Foundation Advanced Study Institutes. She has served as Biology & Medicine Panel member on the Research Grants Council and as Biology Panel Member for the University Grants Committee Research Assessment exercises. She is currently a panel member of the Health and Medical Research Fund.
Research Interests:
Understanding genes, their regulation and function with emphasis on development.
The genetic and molecular basis of inherited and degenerative skeletal disorders.
The Mission of her group is to make significant contributions through multidisciplinary synergistic partnerships and cutting edge science. Her group aspires to reach the long term Vision of “Bench to Bedside” research, translating discovery to the clinic. Some key contributions of her group are:
Sox2 as a master “hearing gene”;
Molecular insights into the function of Sox9, the master gene for development of cartilage;
Discovery of a mechanism that explains how mutations causing ER stress in chondrocytes, can affect their differentiation and cell death and thereby cause skeletal disorders;
Showed that chondrocytes become osteoblasts during bone formation and repair, thereby resolving a century-long debate about this possibility.