R E S E A R C H @ H K U S T
47
PROF YING CHAU
Associate Professor of Chemical
and Biological Engineering
As eye diseases become more
prevalent in the elderly, our
versatile technologies can be
tailored to address delivery
challenges of emerging
therapeutics as well as teach
‘old’ drugs new tricks
Corrected vision
Corrected vision
The next step is to test the efficacy
and safety of both the ultrasound and
hydrogel technologies before their use
can be extended to people.
The technology involved has been
licensed to two companies – Sonikure
Technology Limited to commercialize
the ultrasound innovation, and Pleryon
Therapeutics Limited for the hydrogel
biomaterial. Dr Suen and Dr Yu are
the respective founders of the two
companies. Prof Chau has worked closely
with them since she nurtured their interest
in research as undergraduates.
Dr Yu Yu (left) and Dr Langston Suen (right) with their mentor Prof Ying Chau.
On-the-ground inSIGHT
into Health Solutions
Prof Ying Chau has extended her
transfer technology insights and
passion for helping people through
initiating the Student Innovation
for Global Health Technology
(SIGHT) program, which fosters
undergraduates
,
application of
knowledge and innovation in solving
global health problems.
Projects include assisting patients
suffering from muscular diseases
to input text with a customized
keyboard in Hong Kong, tackling
water problems using natural plant
moringa for home water purification in
Guizhou, Mainland China, introducing
the use of portable camera technology
to screen for diabetic eye diseases
in Indonesia, and developing an
electronic medical record system for
mobile clinics serving
slum residents in
Cambodia. The latter
project won first
prize in the 2016 Rice
360° Global Health
Technologies Design
Competition in the US.
Students are given the opportunity
to observe problems firsthand
and embrace empathy in
the design-thinking process.
Interdisciplinary teams are
charged with creating and
prototyping workable, open source
solutions that address real-life
problems under resource-limited
settings. “This is a holistic way
for students to learn, and of
approaching knowledge transfer
and technology penetration into
the community,” she said.
SIGHT runs credit and non-credit
courses and activities, overseas
study trips, and a Scholar Program
providing funding for students
to spend one or two months in
the field.
HKUST students
developed
EasyMed, an
innovative
electronic health
record system
for mobile
clinics, which
was successfully
launched in
Cambodia in 2016.
