Speaker

Dr. Duanqing Pei is Chair Professor of Regenerative Biology at School of Life Sciences, Westlake University. Dr. Pei received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991; trained as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Michigan from 1991 to 1996. Dr. Pei’s primary interest is to understand cell fate control. His lab pioneered cellular reprograming and discovered: 1) Vitamin C as an epigenetic regulator that enhances cellular reprograming through histone and DNA demethylations; 2) Epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT) and mesenchymal to epithelial (MET) transitions as drivers for iPSC generation; 3) Urine epithelial cells as a source of stating cells for reprograming. He has proposed a chromatin open-close binary logic for cell fate control and an conceptual interface between pluripotent and somatic states. These concepts are still driving current works in the lab. Dr. Pei won national natural science award twice and the distinguished achievement medal from Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is EMBO Associate Member and MAE (Member of Academia Europa).

Phoenix Peng, Distinguished Researcher at Tianfu Jincheng Laboratory, Founder of NeuroXess, and Vice Chairman of the Brain-Computer Interface and Interaction Branch of the Chinese Neuroscience Society. A well-known serial entrepreneur, he has founded multiple companies across various sectors, including life sciences, SaaS, O2O, database marketing, SNS, and enterprise applications. He previously founded the group-buying platform 24Quan and the SaaS company Keruyun, which was fully acquired by Alibaba for 1 billion RMB in 2019, after which he served as Senior Vice President of Alibaba Local Life Services. In 2021, he founded NeuroXess, an invasive BCI company, which is currently the most clinically advanced, commercially successful, and influential BCI company in China.

Dr. Pan’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying fate decision in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs); and on generating functional neural stem cells (NSC) or hematopoietic/immune cells from hPSCs for clinical purposes. He has published more than 30 peer- reviewed papers as corresponding author or first author in decent scientific journals, such as Nature Methods, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications.

Dr. Kate Qi is the Chief Executive Officer of SG Diagnostics Pte Ltd (Singapore) and SG Diagnostics (HK)Limited, leading efforts in advancing point-of-care diagnostics for chronic and infectious diseases across Asia. A scientist-turned-entrepreneur, she holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Nanyang Technological University and has over 10 years of cross-disciplinary experience in nanomaterials, biosensors, and translational diagnostics. Dr. Qi has successfully led R&D teams, commercialized diagnostic platforms, and driven regulatory and IP strategies. Her work spans multiple research grants and a portfolio of seven patents. She previously held leadership roles at NTU and Nanjing Tembusu Institute. Under her leadership, SG Diagnostics has deployed innovative diagnostic solutions in over 20% of the clinics and expanded operations into Hong Kong and Southeast Asia to tackle major population health challenges. Her mission is to make healthcare more accessible, decentralized, and data-driven through scalable innovations.

Dr Qin graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Suzhou Medical College in 1980, received Master’s degree of Medicine from the Suzhou Medical College in 1985 and Doctor’s degree of Pharmacology from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1994. From 1994-1999, he finished postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health USA (NIH) and, from 1999-2003, he was employed as a lecturer and assistant investigator at Harvard University. From 2003 to 2023, he was working as a professor of Pharmacology, graduate student supervisor, Director of Institute of traditional Chinese Medicine at Suzhou University. Now he is the director of Institute of Health Technology, Suzhou Gaobo Vocational College. He is an associate director of Anti-aging Branch of Chinese Gerontology and Geriatrics Society, a member of Editorial Committee of Acta Pharmacologica Sinica. Dr Zheng-Hong Qin, has been engaged in pharmacology teaching and research for about 40 years. He has trained nine postdocs, 25 PhD students and 67 master’s students.There are many innovative achievements in the study of immune modulation and applications of cobra neurotoxin in autoimmune diseases and neurological diseases, He has published about 250 SCI papers and published three monographs (with total citations more than 26000 times, H-index 74). He was named as the most cited Chinese scholar in 11 consecutive years from 2014-2024. He is listed as one of global top 2% scientist in the world and one of 100 most-influential pharmacologist in China.

Prof. C.H. Eddie Ma focuses on developing cures for neurological diseases, including glaucoma, nerve injuries, traumatic brain injury, diabetics neuropathy, spinocerebellar ataxia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. His team advances neuroscience and regenerative medicine through multidisciplinary approach that combines drug repurposing, deep brain stimulation, cell and molecular biology, animal behavior, and genetics. He has published as corresponding author in top-tier journals such as Neuron, PNAS, Science Advances, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and npj Regenerative Medicine. Over the years, he has delivered keynote speeches in several key international conferences.

Prof. Ma holds nine US/China patents and received Gold (2022) and Silver (2021) awards at the Invention Geneva Evaluation Days. Since joining CityUHK, he has secured HKD 43 million in external research funding such as RIF, GRF, ITF, HMRF, and NSFC. He founded AniTech HK Limited, which recently won both the “Winning Start-up” and “My Favourite Start-up” awards at HKTDC Start-up Express 2025. His company also received funding support from ITC’s TSSSU, CityUHK HK Tech 300 and Cyberport. Under his mentorship, many of his PhD students have progressed to faculty and pharmaceutical roles worldwide. 

He earned his BSc from HKUST, MPhil from HKU, and DPhil from Oxford. He received postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Before joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong as Global Stem Scholar and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Stephen Dalton (SD) was Professor and Endowed Chair in Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Georgia where he was founding Director of the “Center for Molecular Medicine”, and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar. Originally from the UK, Dr. Dalton received his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in Australia, followed by post-doctoral research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, with Sir Richard Treisman. Following this, SD was appointed to the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (Hoffman La Roche, New Jersey, USA), with an academic appointment at Columbia University in New York City. Since then, SD has continued research on the therapeutic use of stem cells. This includes collaborations with Johnson and Johnson (New Jersey, USA), Nestle’ (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Viacyte Inc. (San Diego, USA), which was recently acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Dalton’s current work focuses on developing cell-therapy and gene-editing technologies for the treatment of human disease.

Xuemei Chen received a B.S. degree from Peking University, China in 1988 and a doctorate from Cornell University, USA in 1995. After postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology, she started her assistant professor position in 1999 at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and won the Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence at Rutgers University. She moved to University of California, Riverside in 2005 as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2009 and distinguished professor in 2013. In 2006, she received the prestigious Charles Albert Shull award from American Society of Plant Biologists. In 2011, she was elected an AAAS Fellow. She was an HHMI-GBMF investigator from 2012 to 2018. In 2013, she was elected into the US National Academy of Sciences. She received the Martin Gibbs Medal from American Society of Plant Biologists in 2023 and the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award from Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundations in 2024. In 2023, she returned to China to take up a full-time academic position and currently serves as Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, as well as Director of Beijing Advanced Center for RNA Biology (BEACON). Her work has focused on flower development, small RNAs, and RNA modifications in plants.

Prof. Chi-kong LI currently is Research Professor at Department of Paediatrics of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and honorary consultant at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. Dr. Li is specialized in paediatric haematology, oncology, stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. He was the past Continental President of Asia of International Society of Pediatric Oncology. His main interest is in childhood leukaemia, palliative care and bioethics. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers.

Piu Chan, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology and Geriatrics, is the Chair of the faculty of Geriatrics and the Director of Clinical and Research Center for Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Capital Medical University. He serves as the director of the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders and the Parkinson’s Disease Center of Beijing Institutes of Brain Disorders, Xuanwu Hospital. He is also the council member of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), past Secretary of the IAGG Asia-Oceania Region, and the deputy President of the Chinese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (CAGG). He has participated in the development of WHO ICOPE project and its implementation in China. Dr. Chan has participated in drafting the Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for PD and for Prodromal PD of MDS. He published more than 400 peer-reviewed SCI articles with a Google H-index of 92. Dr Chan has been the Principal Investigator for more than 10 international and domestic multi-center clinical register trials, served as consultant for NMPA-CDE. He is currently serving as associate editor of Neuropharmacology and Therapy.