News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is excited to kick off a prestigious three-day “Molecular Frontiers Symposium” at Shaw Auditorium on campus today. The high-level event showcases a lineup of internationally renowned scientists including four Nobel laureates, serving as a dynamic thought-leadership platform for exchanging ideas among brilliant and young minds. Around 40 leading molecular scientists, including Nobel laureates Prof. Stefan HELL, Sir Tim HUNT, Prof. K. Barry SHARPLESS, and Sir Gregory WINTER, will share their knowledge and insights spanning the latest development in genome editing, fluorescence microscopy and protein engineering in this inaugural symposium in Greater China entitled "Frontiers of New Knowledge in Science".  

An international research team led by HKUST has identified a blood protein that plays a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.

A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has demonstrated for the first time in-vivo imaging of fine neuronal structures in mouse cortex through the intact skull at an unprecedented depth of 750 µm below pia, making high-resolution microscopy in cortex near non-invasive and measurably facilitating the study of the living brain. The direct and non-invasive visualization of neurons, glia, and microvasculature in the brain in vivo is critical for enhancing our understanding of how the brain functions.  Over recent decades, great effort has been focused on developing novel techniques for in vivo imaging of the intact brain. However, none of the prevalent technologies, including ultrasound imaging (sonography), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provides sufficient spatial resolution to visualize biological structures at the subcellular level. 

A novel brain-wide genome-editing technology offers immense potential to be translated as a novel long-acting therapeutic treatment for Alzheimer’s patients.

A research team led by HKUST's VPRD Prof. Nancy IP has developed a simple yet highly effective Alzheimer’s blood test from Chinese patient data for the first time.

IAS Senior Visiting Fellow Prof. John HARDY tells us how memory loss could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease, which can steal more than just our memory from us.

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have identified new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by studying the patients’ brain with a newly-developed methodology. This novel approach also enables researchers to measure the effects of potential drugs on AD patients, opening new directions for AD research and drug development.

A research team consisting of scientists from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Jinan University discovered a new mechanism that could delay the degeneration of injured nerves, bringing new hope to the treatment of nerve damage and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).Axon is the long projection of a neuron/nerve cell that transmits electrical impulses to muscles and other nerve cells.  How nerves, bundles of axons and often meter-long processes of neurons maintain their integrity has been one of the fundamental questions in neuroscience, as failure of axonal integrity may cause axonal dying back or retrograde degeneration of nerves – a process very similar to the injury-induced Wallerian Degeneration.  For years, NMNAT-related signaling pathway was the only mechanism known to have deterrent effect against this process.