The Hong Kong Laureate Forum is one of the biggest science events in Hong Kong, and I have heard a lot of positive feedback from previous participants. I am eager to join the forum to connect with more young scholars from Hong Kong. Although I am part of the Croucher network, the COVID-19 pandemic limited my opportunities to engage with fellow researchers. Furthermore, there is a relatively small community of Hong Kong scholars in Scandinavia and Switzerland compared to the UK or the US, making it challenging to expand my network.
Through the forum, I hope to inspire and encourage young bachelor’s and master’s students to dive into research. I am keen to share my experiences of conducting research abroad, discuss science, and provide guidance to those considering academic careers.
Additionally, I look forward to engaging with PIs from Hong Kong to learn from their experiences in setting up labs and becoming independent group leaders. I believe their insights would be invaluable for my own professional development.
Lastly, attending talks from Shaw Prize laureates would be an incredible opportunity to hear their success stories and learn from their journeys, which would further fuel my passion for research and academic growth.

Genome integrity is being constantly challenged by endogenous and exogenous genotoxic agents. While DNA repair mechanisms for many lesions have been extensively studied and are generally well understood, remarkably little is known about how cells overcome one specific lesion, namely covalent DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs).
During my PhD, we demonstrated, for the first time, that DPCs can be resolved DNA replication-independently via the SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase (STUbL) pathway. My work identified two key STUbLs: the well-characterised RNF4 and a bona fide novel STUbL TOPORS, showing cooperation between TOPORS and RNF4 in promoting STUbL pathways at least partially involves their preferences for SUMO1- or SUMO2/3-modified proteins, respectively. We showed their synthetic lethality and highlighted their essential contributions to cellular fitness by promoting SUMO-dependent responses. Also, unresolved DPCs were found to cause chromosome segregation errors and mitotic defects, emphasising the importance of timely DPC repair.
In my postdoc, I expand my expertise in data-driven methodologies and computational approaches. Building on my foundation in cell stress management, biochemistry and cell biology, I will combine cutting-edge tools of functional in vitro and in vivo genomics with machine learning for generating predictive models of DNA-binding preferences of various transcription factors in response to different cellular stresses.