Media

Cell is the basic unit of life. Over time, cells in human body constantly change to different forms. Even though it has been studied for more than a century, it remains challenging to understand what they do and how they change over time during normal health or ageing, or how these changes in cellular structure result in diseases including cancer.

An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Kevin K.M. Tsia of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a new computational tool “VIA” that overcomes the current challenges in the study of normal and malignant cell transformation.

VIA can discover elusive cell lineages and rare cell fates in a variety of biological processes that no other existing technology can do, shedding important light into how disease evolves.

The new technology has been published in Nature Communications. Some research teams in the US and the Mainland have already adopted VIA for COVID-19 research, to track and predict immune responses after infections or vaccinations, and the body’s response to treatments.

A Zoom media conference will be held on February 8 (Tuesday) to introduce the new technology. The researchers will also demonstrate how VIA works including revealing the fascinating and intricate process at a single cell precision that turns a single fertilised egg into a whole new individual with all the organs.

Details of the media conference as below:
Date: February 8, 2022 (Tuesday)
Time: 11am
Zoom link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/92788190318 
Password: 20220208

Speakers:
Professor Kevin K.M. Tsia, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Programme Director of Biomedical Engineering Programme, Faculty of Engineering
Dr Joshua Ho, Associate Professor in School of Biomedical Sciences in LKS Faculty of Medicine

Media enquiries:
Ms Celia Lee, Faculty of Engineering, HKU (Tel: 3917 8519; Email: leecelia@hku.hk) or
Mr Heng Cheng, Faculty of Engineering, HKU (Tel: 3917 1924; Email: hengc@hku.hk)