Team:Hong Kong HKUST/instructors

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Will It Work?

So, will our project be realistically applicable? With this in mind, we have met two well-known individuals in Hong Kong society. Professor Albert Yu and Professor Juliana Chan helped us to understand our project in whole new level. As a scientist and an entrepreneur, Professor Yu identified the issues that we need to consider if we want to see our project used as a biotechnology product. Professor Chan, a medical doctor and an expert in diabetes, enlightened us more about diabetes and the possible application of our project to fight diabetes and obesity.

Interview with Professor Albert Yu

Professor Albert Yu is the chairman of the Hong Kong Biotechnology Organization (HK BIO), and also a professor of the Department of Neurobiology in Pecking University, China. As an entrepreneur and a scientist, Professor Yu gave us realistic insight of our project. Meeting Professor Albert Yu helped us to evaluate our project beyond the laboratory environment and to think about the possible future application as a biotechnology product. Towards the end of the interview, we have also talked about the bio-ethics and bio-safety issues regarding synthetic biology.

Interview with Professor Juliana Chan

Professor Juliana Chan is a professor of medicine and therapeutics in Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK). She is also the director of Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, CUHK; co-director of CUHK-Prince of Wales Hospital International Diabetes Federation Centre of Education; and chief executive officer of Asia Diabetes Foundation. With rich knowledge on diabetes, obesity and clinical practice, Professor Chan gave us practical insights of our project in the medical field. Meeting Professor Chan helped us to understand more about the biochemistry of diabetes. Also, she guided us to think more about the applications of our products by giving us information of the current treatment of obesity and diabetes. Towards the end of the interview, we have also talked about the regulations of new treatment in medical fields.

Aftermath

During both interviews, gene therapy and cell engineering were mentioned as technical application for our project. After the interviews, we decided to research more on these two methods in more detail. Altogether, these interviews pointed at topics that we need research and understand more for the safe application of our project.

Special Thanks!

Special thanks to Miss Willa Yau, Miss Elaine Li, and Kenneth Zhou for making the interviews possible.