Campus Digest

HKBU hosts inaugural “CxC” session spotlighting new frontiers in brain disease research

Monday, 31 August 2026

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Professor Alex Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU (4th left); Professor Lyu Aiping, Vice-President (Research and Development) cum Dean of Graduate School of HKBU (3rd right); Professor Li Min (3rd left); Professor Ma Daqing, Professor of Anaesthesia at Imperial College London (2nd left); Professor Noboru Mizushima (4th right); Professor Shen Hanming (2nd right); Professor Cheung King-ho, Professor of the School of Chinese Medicine at HKBU (1st right); and Professor Christy Cheung, Chair Professor in Information Systems and Digital Innovation Management cum Director of Research Office at HKBU (1st left), attend the “CxC” Series event.
Professor Lyu Aiping delivers the opening remarks, unveiling the concept behind “CxC”, which stands for “Chair Professor and Chair Professor”.
Professor Noboru Mizushima outlines the fundamental molecular mechanisms and physiological roles of autophagy.
Professor Li Min’s research addresses the rising prevalence of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases globally.

HKBU Institute of Creativity, supported by the Hung Hin Shiu Charitable Foundation, and the School of Chinese Medicine held the inaugural session of the “CxC” Series on 11 August with the theme “The Cell That Cleans Itself: From a Novel Discovery to New Hope for Brain Diseases”. The event brought together internationally renowned scientists to discuss autophagy and its recent advances in combating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Autophagy is the cellular self-cleaning process that breaks down and recycles the damaged parts of a cell to build new, healthy components.

Professor Noboru Mizushima, Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Vice Dean of the Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine at The University of Tokyo, and Professor Li Min, Dean and Chair Professor of the School of Chinese Medicine at HKBU, delivered talks on research achievements related to autophagy. Professor Li also introduced HKBU’s efforts to identify neuroprotective drug candidates derived from traditional Chinese medicine.

Professor Mizushima was among the first scientists to visualise autophagy in mammalian tissues. His presentation outlined the fundamental molecular mechanisms and physiological roles of autophagy, tracing how the field has transformed from obscure observations into a central focus of global medical research over recent decades. He also discussed recent findings on autophagosome-lysosome fusion and reversible autophagy-related (ATG) knockdown mouse models that demonstrate restored motor and memory functions, as well as his research on organelle degradation, which remains a highly active area of contemporary inquiry.

Professor Li’s presentation, titled “The Cell that Cleans Itself: Novel Drug Discovery from TCM for Brain Diseases”, addressed the rising prevalence of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases globally. She explained her team’s discoveries on the autophagy-regulating mechanisms of neuroprotective agents derived from the Chinese medicine Uncaria rhynchophylla (Gouteng in Chinese) and curcumin derivatives over the years, showing how traditional Chinese medicine wisdom has integrated with cutting-edge molecular science.

The event concluded with a panel dialogue moderated by Professor Shen Hanming, Chair Professor and Interim Associate Dean (Teaching) of Faculty of Medicine at the University of Macau, where the speakers discussed how autophagy could be successfully harnessed to treat neurodegenerative disorders.

The "CxC" Series features duo-led dialogues between world-class scholars to stimulate scientific inspiration, drive academic exchange, and foster collaborative research.