Dr. Yu-Meng WANG, our Postdoctoral Fellow, is among the first group of awardees of Dr. Barbara Kwok Young Postdoctoral Researcher Travel Grants, to have the financial support participating in a two-week workshop on Retinal Degeneration and Glaucoma at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences of Universität Heidelberg, Germany.
The Dr. Barbara Kwok Young Postdoctoral Researcher Travel Grants are set up with the generous donation from alumna Dr. Barbara Pik-lin Kwok. It aims to recognise research achievements of CUHK early-career researchers through the provision of financial support to attend conferences, seminars, and short-term visits/training outside Hong Kong.
To learn about bridging the gap between laboratory studies and clinical research for patient care in ophthalmology, Yu-Meng visited the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences of Universität Heidelberg.
The workshop was aimed at establishment and utilization of a mouse model of retinal ganglion cell degeneration to develop effective strategies to treat glaucoma, a leading blinding disease in most of the world’s populations including Chinese and Caucasians. Yu-Meng had gained experience of how to build animals models for human diseases. In particular, the workshop provided an opportunity for hands-on training for developing gene-therapy targeting genetic and sporadic retinal disease with the recombinant adeno-associated virus. This had broadened Yu-Meng’s horizon in developing novel therapeutic methods on cellular and molecular levels.
“It is such a challenge to bridge basic science with clinical practice. But this is how treatment for currently incurable diseases that can be developed. The interactions lead to unravelling the molecular mechanism of diseases and developing effective therapeutic methods.” Yu-Meng said about her visit and hoped there will be more opportunities provided for young researchers to learn more about translational medicine.
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