CUHK Research: Changing the world

Cardiovascular immunology Healing hearts Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide, accountable for 13% of deaths in 2020. Kathy Lui Oi-lan, Associate Professor at CUHK’s Department of Chemical Pathology, has been researching ways to solve this urgent problem. Her work has gained her the Croucher Innovation Award in 2017 and Research Grants Council Research Fellowship Award in 2022. There are many factors behind cardiovascular diseases — while some of them are genetic, lifestyle also plays an important role, and the prevalence of diabetes in Chinese-speaking areas has worsened the diseases’ widespread nature. Professor Lui has suggested that current approaches have overlooked this, creating an inability to get to the root of the problem. “There has never been medication that can unblock these blood vessels — all current medicines address the problem of lowering blood lipid levels.” For Professor Lui, such treatments only delayed a potentially lethal problem. Her Kathy Lui Oi-lan Associate Professor of Chemical Pathology 72