Awards and Achievements

The University works extensively in promoting and expanding opportunities for students to engage in research activities to strengthen their research capability and gain hands-on experience. In this issue, we are proud to introduce some of the high-quality work and awards received by our research postgraduate students, whose achievements shine across multiple disciplines in the international arena and local community.

Faculty of Architecture

Longitudinal Study on the Relationship between Air Pollution, Prediabetes, and Diabetes

Professor Cui Guo and her PhD candidate Yuanyuan Yi from the Department of Urban Planning and Design have published a paper titled “Life-course Associations between Ambient Fine Particulate Matter and the Prevalence of Prediabetes and Diabetes: A Longitudinal Cohort Study in Taiwan and Hong Kong” in the top journal Diabetes Care (IF=14.8; Rank 6/186, top 3.2%). This groundbreaking study was conducted in collaboration with Professor Martin Chi Sang Wong from the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, alongside researchers from HKU and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The International Diabetes Federation reported that more than 300 million adults globally were living with prediabetes in 2021. This huge disease burden has not been well-addressed. This is a longitudinal cohort study. A total of 4,551 participants from Hong Kong and Taiwan were followed for nearly two decades, being tracked from childhood into adulthood. The findings are striking: long-term exposure to PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) during school age, adolescence, and adulthood was linked to an increased risk of having prediabetes or diabetes in adulthood (with the odds increased by 15%, 18%, and 29%, respectively). This study sheds light on the critical connection between early-life air pollution exposure and the onset of prediabetes and diabetes later in life. It addresses a significant research gap in understanding the life-course health impacts of air pollution, and highlights the urgent need for comprehensive air pollution control measures throughout the lifespan to reduce the burden of diabetes in the Chinese population. The research findings further reveal that it is never too late to reduce PM2.5 exposure, as it will still be beneficial for people who have previously been exposed to a high level of air pollution when they were children or adolescents.

The full paper can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2337/dc24-1041.

Faculty of Education

PhD Student Presents Research at WFFCE 2024 in Beijing

PhD student Chi Wui Ng from the Faculty of Education participated in the 8th Worldwide Forum for Comparative Education & International Conference on Education Transformation and Human Development (WFFCE) this October at Beijing Normal University.

At the forum, Chi Wui presented his research project titled “Influence of Social Class on Educational Aims of PhD Students in Hong Kong”, and he also engaged with distinguished scholars in comparative education. He attended parallel sessions that explored topics on the internationalisation of Chinese higher education as well as the innovative development of education.

“I was delighted to learn about the latest national educational strategies and impressed to see the extension of the scope of comparative education research to the Global South,” Chi Wui said. “The conference also intrigued me to re-examine three fundamental questions in education: What is education? What is education for? How should education be practised?”

Faculty of Science

Mol Cell: Discovery of the First Reader Protein for mRNA Modification m6Am

Huihui An—a PhD student from the research groups of Professor Alice Wong in the Faculty of Science and Professor Jack Wong in the Faculty of Medicine at HKU— recently published a paper as the first author in Molecular Cell titled “m6Am Sequesters PCF11 to Suppress Premature Termination and Drive Neuroblastoma Differentiation”.

The research is a collaboration between HKU and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. This study is the first to identify the transcription termination factor PCF11 as a specific reader protein for m6Am, revealing a novel mechanism by which m6Am regulates transcription by competing with RNA polymerase II (Pol II) for binding to PCF11. Additionally, the research elucidates the role of m6Am modification in neuroblastoma treatment, emphasising the potential applications of RNA modifications in cancer therapy.

The authors illustrated the mechanism of m6Am through a comic, drawing inspiration from the popular Chinese myth Journey to the West. In one chapter, Wukong attacks Yellow-Brows to save his master. However, before Wukong can strike, Yellow-Brows suddenly throws his ‘magical suction bag’, trapping Wukong inside. This scenario mirrors the mechanism demonstrated in this research study: the m6Am reader PCF11, like Wukong, attempts to bind to phosphorylated serine-2 (S2P) on RNA Polymerase II, which the researchers liken to Wukong attacking the mace (S2P) held by Yellow-Brows (PoI II). However, during this binding process, the researchers discovered that m6Am acts as the ‘magical suction bag’, sequestering PCF11 towards the m6Am of nascent RNA and away from Pol II. 

The paper can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2024.10.004.

Exploring Ants as Ecosystem Engineers and Providers of Ecosystem Services

An extensive literature review led by PhD candidate Felipe Rocha and Dr Taylor Bogar from the Insect Biodiversity and Biogeography Laboratory at the HKU School of Biological Sciences has been published in Myrmecological News, a prestigious journal on ant research.

In the article titled “Two Sides of the Same Coin? Ants Are Ecosystem Engineers and Providers of Ecosystem Services”, the authors review the roles ants play in ecosystems as engineers and connect them with the concept of ecosystem services, discussing the theoretical and practical overlap between these terms.

In ecology, an organism is termed an ecosystem engineer if its body or actions significantly modify the conditions or resources for other organisms and communities to thrive in the environment. Ants are conspicuous nest builders and resource hoarders, thus affecting the physical and chemical environment surrounding their colonies. If we look at those impacts from an ecosystem perspective, we find many cases in which ants affect ecological processes important for ecosystem maintenance, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and plant growth. The absence of ants could lead to a collapse of these systems or profoundly change their functioning and appearance.

From a human perspective, our societies are highly dependent on these key processes, which the authors term ecosystem services or nature’s contributions to people. Both the ecosystem- and human-centric perspectives have different backgrounds, concepts, and research methodologies, ultimately fuelling partially distinct fields within and beyond ecology. However, in this review, the researchers discuss the overlap between these two roles and provide future directions to improve our understanding of ants as important players in global ecosystem maintenance and restoration efforts.

This review is an important contribution to the literature of both fields as the last effort in these areas was published more than a decade ago (Del Toro et al., 2012).

The journal paper can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_034:129.

HKU Ecologists Reconstruct the History of Biodiversity in the Indo-Australian Archipelago and Its Rise as a Hotspot

Dr Skye Yunshu Tian, a former PhD Student of Professor Moriaki Yasuhara from the HKU School of Biological Sciences, has published a paper from her PhD study in the journal Nature titled “Cenozoic History of the Tropical Marine Biodiversity Hotspot”.

This study, co-led by Dr Tian along with Professor Yasuhara, the Swire Institute of Marine Science and the Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, as well as Dr Fabien L. Condamine of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, has shed light on the mysterious history of the Coral Triangle, reconstructing how biodiversity in the region has developed over the past 40 million years.

The researchers began their investigation by examining sediment samples from the Indo-Australian Archipelago in the laboratory and identifying the fossils they contained. Their findings revealed that the archipelago had shown an increase in diversification since the early Miocene, around 20 million years ago. Approximately 2.6 million years ago, the number of species approached a plateau. Interestingly, there were no major extinction events during the entire study period. However, this rich biodiversity could be at risk. “Our palaeobiological results suggest that we could quickly lose the fantastic diversity of the tropical hotspot if the ongoing anthropogenic warming intensifies,” Skye noted.

The journal paper can be accessed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07617-4.

(This article is adapted from https://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/27468.html.)  

Faculty of Social Sciences

Insights from APSCC 2024

PhD student David James Sam Bonsor from the Department of Geography participated in the annual conference held by the Asia Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC) in Bangkok in early November 2024. This three-day event—titled “Navigating an Uncharted Future: Facing Opportunities and Disruptions in the Space Industry”—gathered over 500 mostly industry practitioners in the satellite and broader space industry (with a focus on Asia) and comprised presentations, discussion panels, and networking opportunities.

“It was particularly valuable to hear directly from practitioners as my research interests are focused on the economic and organisational aspects of the commercial space industry,” David shared. “Discussions were highly informative and included current trends in the satellite and launch industry; applications and use of space-generated data and infrastructure (e.g. satellite communications, broadband, and Earth observation); orbital and spectrum sustainability; the digital divide; and looking ahead to in-orbit operations and even a lunar economy.”

“The event was an excellent opportunity to connect with industry participants and hear about their companies’ roles, how they see the industry developing, and the types of opportunities and challenges for both their companies and the industry as a whole,” David said. “As a first-year PhD student in particular, it was highly beneficial to my research as I look to map and understand the latest activities across Asia’s commercial space industry, as well as the variations in different Asian geographies.”

Innovations in Examining Wearable Robot Acceptance among Older Adults

PhD candidate Clio Yuen Man Cheng from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration participated at the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, where she received an award and presented two pivotal studies as part of her PhD research journey. Clio’s research contributions were honoured with the prestigious Aging Among Asians Interest Group Student Award.

Her first presentation, titled “Message Framing and Intention to Use Wearable Robots among Older Adults: A Parallel and Moderated Mediation Analysis”, aimed to examine how message and temporal framing influence wearable robot acceptance among older adults with no or low mobility difficulties in Hong Kong. This sheds light on critical insights crucial for enhancing technology acceptance of emerging technologies in older adults.

In her second presentation, “Ageism Sources Affect Technology Acceptance on Wearable Robots: A Randomized Between-Subject Experiment”, Clio explored the impact of ageism sources on technology acceptance, particularly in the context of wearable robots among older populations. This study aimed to deepen our understanding of the barriers older adults face in embracing technological innovations.

Clio’s work is closely related to the research on developing soft wearable robots in an innovative ‘User-Centric Co-Creation’ approach, a transdisciplinary collaboration under a project called i-REACH (https://i-reach.hku.hk/) funded by the Research Grants Council through a Theme-based Research Scheme project [#T42-717/20-R].

Sociology PhD Student Presents at 2024 SLLS Conference

Wanying Ling, a second-year PhD student from the Department of Sociology, presented her collaborative research at the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS) conference at the University of Essex in September 2024. She shared insights on the biological effects of social isolation and loneliness, a study conducted with Professor Tarani Chandola and Dr Patrick Rouxel from the HKU Department of Sociology and Social Sciences Research Centre.

Wanying found the experience inspiring, especially the sessions on innovative methodologies such as sequence analysis, which offered new perspectives for her research. During her poster presentation, Wanying received valuable feedback from peers and professionals from institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester, and the University of Queensland. This provided insights to enhance her study’s depth. She appreciated the interest in her work and the chance to exchange ideas.

Networking was a key part of Wanying’s conference experience. Connecting with other PhD students and early career researchers gave her valuable insights. She realised that loneliness is a significant topic, with many peers interested in its social determinants and effects. From the perspective of biomarkers, especially cortisol, there is still much to explore. These interactions were enriching and crucial for building professional relationships that could greatly influence her PhD journey, offering new directions for understanding loneliness.

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