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The Graduate School is delighted to announce the winners of our inaugural Research Image competition.

The Competition challenges participants to capture the essence of their research and present it to a broad audience in a visually captivating way. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of the University research community, we received over 80 original and creative research images from students and staff.

After a rigorous process of shortlisting, voting, and evaluation by a distinguished panel of judges from the University, eight winners were selected for their aesthetic appeal, originality, and ability to inspire and illustrate knowledge. The winning images showcase the diverse breadth and depth of research conducted across the university.

The Graduate School would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who participated. Congratulations to all the winners!

Winners

First Prize

Dark Matter Under the Gravitational Lens
By Professor Jeremy Lim, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science

This image is a depiction of our research on using the phenomenon of Gravitational Lensing - the bending of light by matter predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of General Relativity - to uncover the nature of Dark Matter, a substance that comprises a staggering 85% of all mass in our Universe and yet has remained a near complete mystery for about a century. The understanding of the particle nature of Dark Matter is considered as the most pressing question in all of modern physics. Our work on this was featured on the front cover of Nature Astronomy.

This image is created using 3D computer graphics software to illustrate the warping and distortion in the fabric of spacetime resulting from the presence of ubiquitous fluctuations in mass due to wave-like Dark Matter. In the image, light from a distant object like a star or galaxy takes a winding and chaotic path as it travels across the lensing object on its way to us on the Earth. In this case, the lensing object is depicted by a mysterious reflective sphere that represents the unknown nature of dark matter.
 

Second Prize

Heart-Shaped Brain Organoid
By Ms Chloe Kan, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine

The image shows a cerebral organoid grown from differentiating human pluripotent stem cells in a 3D culture, which allows the cells to become neurons and arrange themselves in a structure resembling human brain tissues. This organoid has been grown in culture for 70 days and characterised with immunofluorescence labelling. The different layers in the organoid depicted in magenta and green colours mimics the cortical lamination patterns in the human brain, where the cells are arranged in layers during the development of the brain cortex. The neural progenitor cells can be identified in green (expressing SOX2 marker) and are arranged radially around a ventricle-like area. The intermediate precursors in magenta (expressing TBR2 marker) surround the neural progenitors and form a second layer. We can also see a few doughnut-like arrangements of the neural progenitor cells (green) with a central lumen, resembling the formation of neural rosette-like structures during the development of the human brain. The generation of brain organoids can help create a more comprehensive model for investigating brain diseases and brain cancers with human cells. We plan to use these brain organoids to model glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, and ultimately develop treatments for the disease.
 

Runners-up

Intercellular Mitochondria Transfer via Tunneling Nanotubes
By Mr Shengyan Yang, Prof Cynthia Kar Yung Yiu and Prof Waruna Lakmal Dissanayaka, Faculty of Dentistry

This fluorescence microscopy image illustrates mitochondrial transfer from human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) to endothelial cells (ECs) via intercellular tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) after 24 hours of co-culture in vitro. The mitochondria, labeled with a red fluorescent dye, were observed migrating from the donor hDPSC (right) to the recipient endothelial cell (left), which expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP). The actin cytoskeleton was visualized using F-actin staining (light blue), revealing the formation of tunneling nanotubes that facilitate direct intercellular communication. This image highlights a key mechanism of mitochondrial transfer, providing visual evidence for TNT-mediated mitochondria exchange between stem cells and vascular cells.
 

Light in the Cracks: Ming-Qing Women's Subversive Agency
By Ms Xiao He, School of Chinese, Faculty of Arts

This image symbolizes the resilient survival strategies of lower-class women in the Ming and Qing dynasties, whose agency was marginalized yet silently powerful. The broken "virtue arch" represents the oppressive weight of Confucian moral codes—structures that idealized female chastity, obedience, and sacrifice. From the cracks in this symbolic edifice, golden vines emerge, representing women's agency in overcoming patriarchal constraints.

The vines are intertwined with abacus beads etched with micro-contracts, textile fragments, and legal documents—visual metaphors for how women transformed moral expectations into economic tools. In the background, silhouettes of wife-pawning narratives from Ming-Qing novels reveal the greater elasticity and resilience of grassroots society's ethical order in marriage, family, and gender relations.

Unlike the Confucian moral paragons or passive victims portrayed in literati writings, these women possessed vibrant autonomy and agency, thriving within the crevices of ritual laws. The interplay of oppressive blue-gray stone and radiant mineral pigments underscores the tension between constraint and resistance. These women were not just victims but astute survival negotiators, carving out spaces for autonomy within systems that sought to confine them. It is within these fissures that their wisdom blossomed.
 

Deciphering the Mechanisms of Taste Loss in COVID-19
By Mr Walton Man To Chan, Department of Microbiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine; Prof Jade Lee Lee Teng, Faculty of Dentistry; and Prof Man Lung Yeung, Department of Microbiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine

Taste loss is a hallmark symptom of COVID-19, but how SARS-CoV-2 impairs taste function has remained unknown—until now. In this groundbreaking study, we present the first evidence that SARS-CoV-2 directly infects taste bud cells, using lab-grown taste bud organoids that closely mimic real taste tissue. These organoids contain all key cell types found in natural taste buds and can detect sweet, bitter, umami, sour, and salty flavors.

Our discovery reveals that SARS-CoV-2 targets and damages taste receptor cells, offering a long-sought explanation for COVID-related taste loss. This work not only uncovers a key mechanism of the disease but also establishes taste bud organoids as a vital tool for exploring potential treatments and tissue regeneration strategies.

Left: SARS-CoV-2-infected taste bud organoid (Red: viral protein; Green: taste receptor cells; Blue: nuclei). Right: Single-cell RNA sequencing of infected organoids, highlighting various cell populations. Lower right: Taste bud organoid responds to different taste stimulations (Sweet, bitter, umami, sour, and salty).

From Cell to Blossom: The Journey of Adipogenesis
By Mr Junbo Liao, Department of Surgery, School of School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine

This image beautifully captures the process of adipogenesis, where fat cells, or adipocytes, gradually accumulate and store lipids over time. The striking pink and red droplets, stained with Oil Red O, represent the fat that builds up inside these cells. Much like the delicate blossoms of sakura (cherry blossoms), adipogenesis is a process that requires patience and time.

It typically takes over 10 days for these fat droplets to fully mature and accumulate, reflecting how nature often requires a period of growth and development. Just as sakura flowers don’t bloom overnight, fat cells also take time to reach their final, fully-formed state. This analogy highlights the elegance in both biological processes and the beauty of life’s cycles, whether in the microscopic world or in nature's blooms.

Through this image, we can see not just a scientific phenomenon but the connection between the cycles of life and the stunning patterns that emerge from these processes.

Flutterer
By Ms Xin Dai, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine

This is a cell image of an immunofluorescence experiment, which looks like a butterfly, and the different fluorescence is like a gem on the wings. You will discover many beautiful things in scientific research.
 

The Mouse (or Sperm) Pulsar Wind Nebula 
By Mr Zhihong Shi, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science

A pulsar wind nebula is an amazing and interesting thing in space. It starts when a pulsar, which is like a super-fast spinning star made of neutrons, shoots out a super-fast stream of charged particles. This stream is the pulsar wind. When this wind hits the gas and dust floating around in space, interesting things happen.​ Because of the high-energy process that happens in the collision, the nebula can be bright in radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths. So we can see them with astronomical telescopes. Pulsar wind nebulae come in different shapes. The image shows a fast-moving pulsar wind nebula escaping from where it was born (a supernova remnant). It looks like a comet in Radio and is called "Mouse", but I think it could have better names, like "sperm". Now, my research is about how this nebula behaves in different wavelengths.

 

Acknowledgements

The Graduate School extends our heartfelt thanks to panel of judges for their invaluable contributions to the Research Image Competition:

Chairman

Professor Max Shen
Dean, Graduate School
Chair Professor in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Members (in alphabetical order)

Professor Cecilia Cheng
Associate Dean (Personal Development), Graduate School
Professor
Department of Psychology

Professor Dong-Yan Jin
Senior Associate Dean, Graduate School
Clara and Lawrence Fok Professor in Precision Medicine
School of Biomedical Sciences

Professor Florian Knothe
Director, University Museum and Art Gallery
Fellow in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities
and Social Sciences

Professor Edmund Lam
Associate Dean (Innovation & Career Development), Graduate School
Professor
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor David Li
Associate Dean (Scholarships & China Affairs), Graduate School
Professor
Department of Chemistry

Professor Stephanie Ma
Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) (Interim)
Jimmy and Emily Tang Professor in Molecular Genetics
School of Biomedical Sciences
 

The Graduate School would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the Knowledge Exchange Office for their funding support for this Competition.