HKU Bulletin February 2004 (Vol. 5 No. 2)

17 16 RESEARCH AND TEACHING Outstanding Young Researcher Award Dr Ronnie Poon Tung Ping Associate Professor, Department of Surgery D r Poon is a specialist in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. His research interest is the management of various hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases, in particular liver cancer. He is the author of over 100 articles in international journals, and has written seven book chapters. One of his articles, on long-term prognosis after resection of liver cancer in cirrhotic patients, was published three years ago in the Journal of Clinical Oncology , and was chosen by the journal as that year’s ‘Classic Paper in Gastrointestinal Cancer Research’. Dr Poon is an internationally known expert in the management of liver cancer and he is frequently invited to write editorials or give lectures in this area. He is currently conducting several clinical trials on novel treatment modalities for liver cancer and he is collaborating with overseas centres in performing mul t i -centre studies. In addition to clinical research, Dr Poon is also interested in laboratory research on tumour angiogenesis in liver cancer. Dr Poon feels that the new generat ion of cl inical academics should actively participate in basic research in this genomic era. He believes that clinical academics are in a strategic position to translate new findings in laboratory research to bedside appl ications in the diagnosis and management of diseases. poontp@hkucc.hku.hk Dr Tse Hung Fat Associate Professor, Department of Medicine D r Tse is particularly interested in the development of novel therapies for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. He has established the first large animal laboratory for research and training on cardiovascular medicine in Hong Kong. In the past few years, he has focused on the development of new non-pharmacological therapy for treatment of abnormal cardiac rhythm. He has published five book chapters and over 50 original articles in various major international cardiology journals on this topic. Recently, Dr Tse and his colleagues have been working on the use of stem cells for regeneration of the heart, and are global pioneers in applying this novel therapy to the treatment of heart attacks in humans. Dr Tse believes that close collaboration between different disciplines (scientists, engineers, and clinicians) within the University is vital important for success in the proactive development of translational medical and bioengineering research. Dr Tse is currently the Director of the University’s Sun Chieh Yeh Cardiovascular Research and Training Laboratory. hftse@hkucc.hku.hk