| OUR PEOPLE People Portrait - Prof. Yin XIA, Assistant Professor |
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1. Why did you choose Hong Kong as your base for career development? Hong Kong is an international city and the heart of Asia, with a mixture of Western and Chinese cultures. The higher education institutes in Hong Kong are of world-class standing, and they have excellent infrastructures for innovative, high-impact and leading-edge research. 2. Would you share with us the most interesting part of your research? We use a wide spectrum of approaches, ranging from conventional physiological methods to modern molecular and genetic techniques, to study a number of biological processes including ovarian follicle development, embryonic kidney development, adipogenesis, regulation of iron metabolism, and growth hormone resistance and insulin resistance. We are really fascinated with the intricate molecular networks in these processes. 3. What are the challenges or difficulties that you are facing at work? And, how have you overcome them? Thanks to the startup funding offered by the University and the great help from my colleagues and lab members, my laboratory was set up very quickly and smoothly. Basically, everything goes well in the laboratory although sometimes I am a bit frustrated by the fact that some of the high quality reagents from overseas are very expensive, and it takes a long time to get them. So, we have to spend a lot of time finding cheaper alternatives to the products that we used to use. These difficulties can be solved, to a certain extent, by increasing the current funding level, if financially allowed. Also, we have to make plans way before we start the experiments. Brief Biosketch of Prof. Yin Xia Prof. Xia currently works as an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences. He is also a member of the "Reproduction, Development and Endocrinology" program of the School. Before joining us, he was an Instructor of Medicine in Harvard Medical School. Prof. Xia received his Ph.D. from The University of New England in Australia. He finished his postdoctoral training in Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Prof. Xia focused his research on the mechanisms of BMP signal transduction, and the biological function in ovarian follicle development, embryonic kidney development, adipogenesis and iron metabolism. His research was supported by NIH K01 and R03 grants, and is also supported by RGC grants. |
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