Current Members
 
Professor Stephanie MA
Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation), HKU
Jimmy and Emily Tang Professor in Molecular Genetics, School of Biomedical Sciences, HKUMed

Prof. Ma obtained her B.Sc. (Cell Biology and Genetics) and M.Sc. (Experimental Medicine) degrees from the University of British Columbia (Canada), and graduated from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) with a Ph.D. of outstanding ranking that was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for the Best PhD Thesis of that year. Since then, she has been working at HKU where she is currently the Jimmy and Emily Tang Professor in Molecular Genetics at the School of Biomedical Sciences in Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, HKU (HKUMed), and Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation) at HKU. Prof. Ma is also a Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Liver Research and the Academic Lead of the Imaging and Flow Cytometry Core / Bioreagent Core / Bioresearch Support Core of the Centre for PanorOmic Sciences at HKUMed. Previously, she served as an Associate Director in the School of Biomedical Sciences and the Assistant Dean (Innovation and Technology Transfer) at HKUMed and was the Associate Director of the Knowledge Exchange Office at HKU. Prof. Ma’s team is dedicated to better understand how a more stemness and undifferentiated state in cancer can contribute to therapy resistance and tumor recurrence, making contributions towards a better comprehension of functional markers and properties that regulate cancer cell plasticity in gastrointestinal tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). In her field, she has been listed by Clarivate as a top 1% most-cited scholar (2010–2018) and by Stanford University as a top 2% scientist worldwide (2022-2024). She is also the recipient of the 2008 Young Scientist Award in Life Sciences from the Hong Kong Institution of Science, the 2012-13 Outstanding Young Researcher Award from HKU, the 2014 Croucher Innovation Award, the 2014 Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Award (Second-class Award in Science and Technology Section) from the Higher Education Institution of China, the 2017 University of British Columbia Alumni Builder Award (Canada), the 2018 Ton Duc Thang University Scientific Prize – Rising Star Award (Vietnam), the 2021 Research Grants Council (RGC) Research Fellow Scheme, the 2023 Croucher Senior Research Fellowship as well as the 2022-23 Outstanding Researcher Award from HKU. Prof. Ma is a Founding Member and current Vice-President and Chair of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. She is also a member of the Future Forum Young Scientist Innovation Alliance in China and serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP) and the International Society of Differentiation, as well as a member of the Advisory Board at the Hong Kong Life Sciences Society (HKLSS). She also serves as a Senior Editor of Cancer Research and an Editorial Board Member of Hepatology, Carcinogenesis and Differentiation.

Dr. Kai Yu NG, Johnson – Senior Research Officer
Dr. Tin Lok WONG, Eric – Senior Research Officer
Dr. Gladys POON – Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Ianto Bosheng HUANG – Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Huajian YU – Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Ka Hei LAM, Sheree – Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Shiu Yeung LAM, Lance – Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Ut Kei LOU, Venus – Postdoctoral Fellow
Yinjia HUANG, Angel – HKU Presidential PhD student (2022-2026)
Jingyi YUAN – PhD student (2022-2026)
Yee Lok TSOI, Elok – RGC HKPFS PhD student (2023-2027)
Yalu CUI – PhD student (2023-2027)
Yuxin HU – RGC HKPFS PhD student (2024-2027)
Yanshu KONG, Angela – RGC HKPFS PhD student (2024-2028)
Changmo PARK – RGC HKPFS PhD student (2024-2028)
Lamia CHOWDHURY – PhD student (2025-2028)
Rafter WU – PhD student (2025-2029)
Juyu CHEN – Technical Officer
Henry CHOI Chi Hin – BBMS FYP student (2025-2026)

Lab Alumni
Dr. Kwan Ho TANG – Co-supervised PhD student (2008-2011)
Pak Shing KWAN – Research Assistant (2009-2013)
Yu Long GAO, Aaron – Research Assistant (2014-2015)
Tsun Ming FUNG, Kent – MPhil student (2012-2014)
Tsz Yan LUI, Daisy – BBMS FYP student (2015-2016)
Dr. Stella CHAI – HKU UPF PhD student (2012-2015)
Chi Chung LAU, Marco – MPhil student (2014-2016)
Dr. Lok Hei CHAN, Jack – PhD student (2013-2016), Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2017)
Dag WONG – BSc Biochem intern (2016-2017)
Chun Ho CHAN, Ben – BBMS FYP student (2016-2017)
Dr. Chi Han LI, Samson – Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2017)
Tsz Wai LI, Natalie – MPhil student (2016-2018)
Tsz Lok FONG, Marco – BBMS FYP student (2018-2019)
Cheuk Yin LIN, Alan – BBMS FYP student (2018-2019)
Wan Foon KAU, Phillis – Senior Technical Officer (2013-2019)
Dr. Noelia CHE – PhD student (2016-2019)
Dr. Tin Chi LUK, Steve – HKU UPF PhD student (2014-2018), Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2019)
Cheuk LI, Terry – Research Assistant (2020)
Po Chit FUNG, Pucci – BBMS FYP student (2020-2021)
Jun Fung KAM, Max – MBBS Enrichment Year student (2020-2021)
Dr. Lei ZHOU, Lena – Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2021)
Dr. Ho Chun LOONG, Jane – PhD student (2017-2021), Postdoctoral Fellow (2021)
Dr. Yanyan WANG – Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2021)
Dr. Mingdan DENG, Sara – Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022)
Dr. Man TONG – PhD student (2010-2014), Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2019), Research Assistant Professor (2019-2022)
Yunong XIE – Co-supervised MPhil student (2020-2022)
Hiu Yat YU, Justin – MRes(Med) (2021-2022)
Suo LING, Sarah – Research Assistant (2020-2022)
Dr. Yuan GAO – HK Scholars Program Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023)
Ka Yi LEUNG, Victoria – Research Assistant (2022-2023)
Lok Sze YEUNG, Phoebe – BBMS FYP student (2022-2023)
Yee Lok TSOI, Elok – BBMS FYP student (2022-2023)
Dr. Tsz Lam WONG, Matthew – PhD student (2018-2021), Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023)
Dr. Jia Jian LOH – RGC HKPFS PhD student (2019-2023), Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2024)
Dr. Ki Fong MAN, Toni – PhD student (2020-2023), Senior Research Assistant (2023)
Dr. Huajian YU – PhD student (2020-2024)
Yanshu KONG, Angela – Research Assistant (2022-2024)
Dr. Ka Hei LAM, Sheree – PhD student (2021-2024)
Cheuk Chun HO, Joseph – Part-time MPhil student (2022-2025)
Dr. Ut Kei LOU, Venus – PhD student (2021-2025)
Jia Yan TAN – MPhil student (2022-2024); Research Assistant (2024-2025)
Chun Yuen WONG, Don – Research Assistant (2023-2025)
Dr. Huanwen WU – PhD student (2021-2025)