Joseph Wong 王天任教授

Cellular growth concordance with membrane-lipid axis and genome physical karyotypes

All compartments in the cell are connected, so are growth and genome cycles; all living organisms solve the life problems, some with common and some with different resolutions. The understandings of biological processes are enlightened with observations in challenge-response, mutant-phenotypes, and evolutionary understandings. Looking at biological problems from different angles will give the deeper and wider knowledge needed in the post-omics era.

We employ several research models, including bacterial, yeast, plant, and dinoflagellate cells in our research. The permanent nuclear envelope, and the availability of genome cycle synchronization, in addition to large cell size (the nucleus being larger than a yeast cell) facilitated contamination-free (positive-negative regulation from different parts of the cells and cell cycle) preparations for the analysis of molecular cell biology. The different aspects of the dinoflagellate system will contribute to multiple biomedical-significant fields, as well as in facing our challenges in global sustainability.

Being a key phytoplankton group, the major harmful algal bloom agents, and the zooxanthellae that was deceased in coral bleaching, the dinoflagellates have made their footprints on Earth. Coral reef ecosystems, including those of the disappearing Great Barrier Reef, depend on symbiotic dinoflagellates for their primary productivity. The group have some of the largest reported repertoires of bioactive compounds, with modular polyketide synthase units, and have well established industrial scale fermentation technology for omega-3 DHA production.

The three interrelated areas of dinoflagellate biology, cellulose deposition-vesicular transport, membrane-lipid, and genome physical karyotypes, will cumulate to make a difference in basic biology, as well as strategic in our exploitation of this ecologically profound group. We are entering an exciting era, with sequencing technology and transgenic technology unleashing the genome secrets of dinoflagellates, which will posit the group in the forefronts of biotechnology and synthetic biology. We also isolated a series of novel species, including some with the lowest genome size reported that will solve prior problems in functional studies. 

Full research Interests: https://life-sci.hkust.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/WongJ_research_interest_10.pdf

https://life-sci.hkust.edu.hk/team/tin-yum-wong/

I am also planning several series of communications between arts (painting, woodsai and chinese rhymes) and science (molecular biology)

The first two will be in the areas of GPCRs and the Pyrophyta