Carmen Wong
Cancer Biology Lab
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
News
Derek's Farewell
December 11th, 2023
Derek has been in our lab for 8 years. He completed his PhD studies here and has been with us as a post doctoral fellow. Thank you Derek for all you hard work and contribution to the team. We will miss you in the lab and safe travels back home! Good luck in your future endeavors!
28th Research Postgraduate Symposium
Nov 30th, 2023
The 28th annual Research Postgraduate Symposium of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine took place on 29th and 30th of November. Our PhD and MPhil students, Carrie, Haijing, Zher, Helen and Cindy participated in the poster presentation section to share their interesting projects with the Faculty. Carrie, Haijing and Helen were awarded the poster awards. Congratulations to them! We are so proud of you and keep up the good work!
AASLD Liver Meeting- Creating Impact: How to get your research noticed
Nov 13th, 2023
Carmen will give a talk in upcoming Liver Meeting held by AASLD, on the topic of "Creating Impact: How to get your research noticed" where attendees will learn how to make their journal articles stand out, to both editors and readers, in the current digital age.
All interested may join in-person through registration to the session!
Sixth CALS Annual Symposium
Nov 3-4th, 2023
Carmen will give a Keynote Lecture in upcoming annual symposium held by CALS, on the topic of "Precision Medicine in Liver Cancer: Deciphering the Metabolic and Immune Microenvironment"
Back from Cold Spring Harbor Asia Meeting!
September 20th, 2023
Carmen and our lab members attended the Cold Spring Harbor Asia Liver Meeting in Suzhou! Besides Carmen's presentation, Jacinth, Vincent and Carrie also presented their work during the poster presentation session!
Great learning experience indeed!
Crick-HKU Symposium
Sept 19th, 2023
Carmen will present in the upcoming Crick-HKU Symposium on the topic 'Understanding the Interplay between
Metabolism and Immune Responses in Liver Cancer'.
Feel free to join in-person or online via the registration link below!
Liver Development, Metabolism, Disease and Cancer- Cold Spring Harbor Asia
Sept 11-15th, 2023
Carmen will present in the upcoming conference held by Cold Spring Harbor Asia (CSHA) on the topic of "Liver Development, Metabolism, Disease and Cancer".
All interested may join us in-person through registration to the conference!
State Key Lab of Liver Research and TRS Project on Liver Cancer Seminar 2023
Sept 11th, 2023
Dr Klaus H. Kaestner (Penn Diabetes Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, USA) was invited to be the speaker in the seminar co-organised by State Key Laboratory of Liver Research (SKLLR) and RGC Theme-based Research Scheme Project on Translations to Enhance Liver Cancer Management.
We shared the latest advances and findings in the field of liver cancer and learned a lot from Dr. Klaus's wonderful talk!
ILCA Annual Conference 2023
Sept 7-9th, 2023
Carmen presented Jacinth's project on the "Hypoxia-inducible factor orchestrates adenosine metabolism to promote liver cancer development" at the ILCA Annual Conference, which was held in Amsterdam. It was a great opportunity to share our latest finding on how hypoxia shaped the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment with the scientific community!
Dr. Carmen Wong- Advancing the Frontier of Cancer Research, HKU Graduate School Newsletter
Sept, 2023
Carmen was invited by HKU Graduate School to share her inspiring stories and research to graduate student, providing advice and guidance on the mindset aspect and academic pursuits to younger researchers. Well, as Carmen remarks, research is never an easy path, but that's what makes you special, so never give up and let's keep trying!
Check out the link below for the full article!
David's Visit
Aug 22nd, 2023
Our PhD graduate and past Post-doctoral Fellow David visited our laboratory. We had a nice catchup and he shared with us his journey in the US. Happy to see you again!
Seminar in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University
Aug 15th, 2023
Carmen will present in an upcoming seminar in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University on the topic 'Investigating the Metabolic and Microenvironmental Dynamics of Liver Cancer for Precision Medicine'.
All interested may join us in-person!
State Key Laboratory of Liver Research (SKLLR) Internal Research Meeting 2023
Aug 12th, 2023
The 2023 Internal Research Meeting of SKLLR was held the past weekend. Carrie, our PhD student, presented her work and was awarded the Best Oral Presentation Award. It was a well-deserved award for Carrie's hard-work in the past few years. Congratulations Carrie!
Harnessing the Immune System to Outsmart Cancer: Cutting-Edge Research and Innovations in Immuno-Oncology
Aug 2nd, 2023
Carmen has shared our findings in cancer metabolism, tumor microenvironment, and therapeutic strategies in the one-day Symposium on Immuno-Oncology, which was held at the University of Hong Kong. This event brings together world-renowned researchers to share the latest advances and challenges in the field of immuno-oncology and encourages communication within the scientific community.
Hope that everyone enjoyed the event and had a fruitful day!
Croucher Summer Course in Immunology 2023
Aug 1st, 2023
Carmen has shared our findings in the tumor microenvironment and therapeutic strategies in the Croucher Summer Course in Immunology, which is a one-day summer course aiming to equip postgraduate students and budding scientists with a more comprehensive understanding of immunology. This event again has highlighted that research is not only about doing experiments, but also about interaction, discussion, and connection with fellow researchers.
Hope the students enjoyed the event!
Li Ka Shing Prize, 2021-2022
July 24th, 2023
Our PhD Graduate Jacinth has been awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for the best PhD thesis in Science, Medicine, Engineering and Technology for the academic year of 2021-2022. A huge congratulations to Jacinth for this great accomplishment!
Graduation 2023
July 18th, 2023
Our PhD Graduates Jacinth, Bowie and Vincent attended the 110th Congregation for the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine on July 18th. Thank you for your hard work and dedication in the past years and for being great inspirations for the rest of the team! Congratulations on your graduation Dr.Cheu, Dr.Wong and Dr.Yuen! Can't wait to see what the future holds!
Department of Pathology Research Postgraduate Students (RPGs) Retreat 2023
July 7, 2023
Our students Carrie, Haijing, Zher, and Helen participated in our Department's RPG Retreat. All 4 of them enthusiastically shared their studies with fellow department members. Haijing was awarded the Outstanding Presentation Award, and Zher was awarded the Best Presentation Award. Congratulations to Haijing and Zher for their awards and all the excellent presentations from everyone! Keep it up!
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Hong Kong Inter-University Postgraduate Symposium in Biochemical and Life Sciences, 2023
June 17, 2023
Our PhD students, Carrie and Haijing, attended the 2023 Hong Kong Inter-University Postgraduate Symposium in Biochemical and Life Sciences on 17 June at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Both of them were awarded for the outstanding poster presentation out of 82 posters. Congratulations on the awards, Carrie and Haijing!
Ninth Macau Symposium on Biomedical Sciences 2023
June 17, 2023
Carmen will present in the upcoming Macau Symposium on Biomedical Sciences (MSBS) to be held between June 14-17, 2023 on the topic 'Precision Medicine and the Mechanistic Basis of Combination Treatments for Liver Cancer'. This symposium is organized by the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) of the University of Macau (UM), which aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results with topics on but not limited to Diagnostic Imaging and Drug Delivery, Cancer Immunology, Translational Trial/ Personalized Cancer Therapy, etc.
All interested may join us in-person through simple registration by clicking the link below.
EACR Congress 2023
June 12-15, 2023
Carmen and a few lab members attended the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) Congress 2023 in Torino, Italy! Jacinth, Grace and Zher presented their work at the poster exhibition. Overall a great and fruitful learning experience for all of them!
Final Year Projects- It's A Wrap!
May 15, 2023
Our FYP students, Yeseo from the School of Biological Sciences and Terence from the School of Biomedical Sciences have submitted their dissertations and completed their presentations! They have been working very hard on their projects in the past year. Congratulations on the completion and happy graduation to Yeseo and Terence! Good luck on your future endeavors!
Sharing passion, igniting curiosity
May 11, 2023
We hosted another lab visit for a group of students from Pui Ching! They had the opportunity to learn about our research interests as well as some basic laboratory experiments demonstrated by our lab members. Hope they enjoyed the engaging session as much as we do!
Hypoxia-inducible factor orchestrates adenosine metabolism to promote liver cancer development
May 5, 2023
Hypoxia-induced adenosine creates an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and dampens the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). In our recent paper, we revealed that hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) orchestrates adenosine efflux through two steps in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). First, HIF-1 activates transcriptional repressor MXI1, which inhibits adenosine kinase (ADK), resulting in adenosine accumulation in hypoxic cancer cells. Second, HIF-1 transcriptionally activates equilibrative nucleoside transporter 4 (ENT4), pumping adenosine into the interstitial space of HCC, elevating extracellular adenosine levels. Together, we illustrated the dual role of hypoxia in establishing an adenosine-mediated immunosuppressive TME and offered a potential therapeutic approach via adenosine receptors blockade that synergizes with ICIs in HCC. This work was published in Science Advances. Congratulations on a great paper Dr. Jacinth Cheu!
RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, 2023
April 28, 2023
Our Post-doctoral Fellow, Cerise, is selected as awardee of Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme. This fellowship aims to encourage doctoral graduates in pursuing career in research and provide promising researchers with support at a pivotal time in their very early career. Congratulations!
Carrie and Kenneth in AACR2023
April 19, 2023
Our Post-doctoral Fellow, Kenneth and PhD student, Carrie attended AACR meeting in Orlando this year. Carrie gave poster presentation on her research study. They had a fruitful experience in the conference!
Carmen and the team being featured in RTHK!
April 4, 2023
Carmen was invited by RTHK to share about her inspiring stories and research to the public, lighting up the research interests and curiosity among the younger generation. Well, research is not just about experiments and findings, science communication is equally important!
Check out the link below for the full video!
【Exploring New Horizons 2023】- DGS students lab tour!
April 3, 2023
Around 15 students from Diocesan Girls' School visited our lab last month and it was being featured by the Hong Kong Laureate Forum! Special thanks to our demonstrators for showcasing our work and explaining the principles of the experiments carried out in our lab. Hope they enjoyed the tour!
Vincent's PhD Viva Voce
March 22, 2023
Huge congratulations to Vincent for successfully defended his PhD thesis and has officially become Dr. Vincent Yuen! He put in tremendous efforts throughout his PhD to reach this achievement, we are all so proud of you! Everyone enjoyed the surprise lunch to celebrate this good news!
Macus's Li Ka Shing Prize Video
March 21, 2023
The Video from Macus's Li Ka Shing Prize is now available for watching!
Ferroptosis Suppressor Protein 1 Inhibition Promotes Tumor Ferroptosis and Anti-tumor Immune Responses in Liver Cancer
March 7, 2023
A recent paper published by our group showed that inhibition of ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 can suppress hepatocellular carcinoma tumor growth via the induction of ferroptosis. Ferroptotic cell death was also shown to promote innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity. This represents a novel and potent therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma with improved treatment outcome. The paper was published on Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Congratulations to Jacinth and Derek!
HKU Presidential Scholars Symposium cum Prize Presentation Ceremony
March 7, 2023
Carmen, Zher, and Cindy attended the HKU Presidential Scholars Symposium cum Prize Presentation Ceremony at the beginning of March. Carmen received the Li Ka Shing Prize for best MPhil thesis on behalf of our MPhil graduate Macus. Our second-year PhD student, Zher presented her first poster at the Symposium while our first-year PhD student Cindy was awarded the HKU Presidential Scholarship. Congratulations!
Hong Kong Immunology Forum 2022/23
January 10, 2023
Carmen will present in the upcoming Hong Kong Immunology Forum 2022/23 to be held on Saturday, February 4, 2023 on the topic 'Approaching personalized medicine with precision mouse liver cancer models'. This event is organized by The Hong Kong Society for Immunology (HKSI), which aims to provide a forum for scientific discussion in matters related to Immunology Research with a network of scientists working in Hong Kong.
All interested may join us in-person or via Zoom through simple registration by scanning the QR code above.
與科學家及工程領袖的約會 - Hong Kong Academy of Sciences 香港科學院
January 4, 2023
Carmen has shared our recent findings in cancer metabolism, tumor microenvironment and therapeutic strategies in 與科學家及工程領袖的約會, an event co-organized by Hong Kong Academy of Sciences and Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. This meeting aims at promoting local science research work to the general public, and nurturing interest of younger generations in Hong Kong in science. Carmen also shared her interesting experience and challenges in research in this meeting. Recording of this meeting can be found in the link below.