Stephanie was honored with the HKU Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award 2025 during the HKU Excellence Awards Presentation Ceremony held on April 30, 2025, at the Rayson Huang Theatre.
“Professor Ma believes that no goal is too ambitious if driven by motivation. Her greatest fulfilment comes from seeing her students and staff succeed. She is grateful to work alongside a team of passionate, fearless young researchers who share her enthusiasm.”
News
HKU Research Postgraduate Symposium cum Award Presentation Ceremony 2026
The HKU Research Postgraduate Symposium took place on March 9, 2026, at Lecture Hall II, Centennial Campus, HKU. The event aimed to highlight the progress of RPG students and foster the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Our PhD students—Angela, Changmo, and Yuxin—showcased their research through poster presentations. They all performed exceptionally well, with Changmo and Yuxin receiving the prestigious Best Poster Presentation Awards. Congratulations to the entire team on a fantastic achievement!
XMAS 2025
Merry Christmas from our lab to yours! 
ASTRA 2025
19-21 Nov 2025 – The inaugural Asian Pacific Spatial Translational Research Alliance (ASTRA) 2025 took place at Rydges Resort, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. Thank you, Ankur, for the invitation to speak at the meeting and for joining the alliance. I look forward to building our collaboration across the APAC region.
Post-Meeting Report: FASEB SRC 2025 on Cellular Plasticity in Cancer
Delighted to share a recap of the discussions we had at our FASEB SRC 2025 on Cellular Plasticity in Cancer, published as a post-meeting report in the new journal Cancer Heterogeneity and Plasticity. Read about it here. 
SKLLR Symposium 2025
25 Oct 2025 – Our Postdoc Venus shared her research findings at this year’s SKLLR Symposium held at the JW Marriott Hotel.
LSCCB 4th Symposium for Anticancer Drug Discovery and Development
21 Oct 2025 – Stephanie gave a talk on the team’s latest work at the LSCCB 4th Symposium for Anticancer Drug Discovery and Development held at HKSTP. 
2025 International Conference on Translational Medicine
17-19 Oct 2025 – Stephanie gave a keynote at the International Conference on Translational Medicine (ICTM 2025). The event was organized by Peking University International Cancer Institute and took place at the Beijing International Convention Centre. It was great to visit Beijing again after so many years, catch up with old friends, and meet some new ones!
【明德教授】馬桂宜教授：揮之不能 擊退癌症輪迴
This feels like a truly meaningful full-circle moment for me. Graduating with a PhD from HKU was a pivotal step in my journey, and my aspiration has always been to dedicate myself to advancing cancer research. Receiving the endowed professorship recognition means the world to me and deeply validates my commitment. I am profoundly grateful to HKUMed for this incredible opportunity and for the interview.
Science Translational Medicine
Ecstatic to finally be able to share our latest publication in Science Translational Medicine, documenting our findings on targeting AGPAT4 to overcome liver cancer cell plasticity, from a fruitful collaboration between our cancer biology team and Prof Clive Chung’s chemical biology team. ⭐⭐
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adn9472
SMA Lab 