Bulletin No. 1, 2023

Medicine of and for the future Compared with other InnoHK Centres, CNRM is still in its formative days. An orthopaedic surgeon specialising in sports medicine, Professor Yung deploys stem cells to treat osteoarthritis and cartilage damage as part of his research at CNRM. “In a clinical setting, we are faced with a multitude of irresolvable issues, ageing being one of them. It can be neural degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, knee osteoarthritis, tendinopathy, frozen shoulder or tennis elbow. We’d like to reverse that—that is, to make the tissues and organs young and healthy again,” he says. Humble and soft-spoken, Professor Chan is an expert in developmental biology and embryology, focusing on the development of the peripheral and enteric nervous systems. At CNRM, part of his research involves tissue engineering. He brings miniature, crystal-clear tissue chips to our interview: organs-on-chips created by engineers, which mimic human physiology. Cells can be placed in the hair-fine microchannels within the chips so that researchers can study pathologies and cell behaviours. “Originally, this was used for studies of blood vessel formation and cell migration. Now it is used to model the peripheral nervous system. We put severed nerves in and feed them with different ingredients, comparing the rates at which they grow in different scenarios. In this way, we can find out what kind of environment is most conducive to nerve recovery.” He explains these chips can speed up the research process and minimise the use of animals. The research conditions are fully controllable, and the experimental process and outcome stabler and more reliable. “Another colleague is doing something even more interesting: he is growing organs on these chips, studying ways to treat the damaged organs. In other words, that is body research outside the human body,” says Professor Chan. “You could even grow liver or muscles. Everybody wants to be the first to achieve this.” Exchange of ideas begets wisdom On top of hitting the goals regarding theses, patents, start-ups and talent as put down in proposals, the two professors are ardently hoping there is synergy between them and their overseas researchers. Scientific breakthroughs need financial backing, but the soul of novelty is made up of resolve to push the limits of knowledge and go one step further, as well as creative sparks that are born out of exchange of thoughts and ideas. “Researchers have their specialisations and strengths. We will work closely together, hoping to engender something new,” says Professor Yung. Enabling technologies are one of CNRM's research programmes, and a locus for researchers from different disciplines. Scaffolds, for example, can be used in cartilage and tendons, so engineers designing the scaffolds work with people researching Envisioning a healthier future 13 As if it were newly born