Stephanie Ma - Life Science and Medicine

42

35

38.5

Valerie Tanya Chan

Ms

02/08/2004

Y9544

Email hidden; Javascript is required.

+85252268711

Campusplein 1
Utrecht
Netherlands

As a biomedical sciences student, I have always wanted to make a difference in the world through research and health awareness. I have led an iGEM team of CUHK to engineer a cell line to produce adipose-targeted exosomes with anti-obesity properties via RNAi, presenting our research internationally – an experience that strengthened my scientific communication skills. Beyond this, I have also conducted research in the Netherlands, working on endogenous loci targeting via CRISPR-Cas9.
The Hong Kong Laureate Forum would be a precious opportunity to further share my research findings and shape my futur endeavors. Through world-class seminars, poster sessions, and dialogues, I hope to collaborate with like-minded peers and learn from frontrunners in the field of medicine and beyond. I am particularly inspired by the work of Kazutoshi Mori and Peter Walter, with their discovering of the unfolded protein response (UPR) revolutionizing our understanding of cellular stress; with major implications for prion diseases, Huntington’s disease, and other conditions I have explored throughout my undergraduate studies. To be able to engage with such pioneering researchers would be an immense honor, and would certainly be invaluable in my pursuit to contribute meaningfully to the field of biomedical sciences.

Undergraduate

Biomedical Sciences

Utrecht University (Exchange)/ The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Netherlands/Hong Kong

Judge’s Commendation Award: Summer Undergraduate Biomedical Research Attachment (SUBRA) 2023
iGEM Competition 2024: Silver Medal (Student Leader)
Innovation And Technology Scholarships 2024

Since its discovery in 2012, the genome editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the field of molecular biology owing to its versatility and relative ease of use. Conventional CRISPR-Cas9 rely on the generation of double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs), which often cause unpredictable modifications to the genome. To bypass this issue, researchers have explored the use of nickases, which generates single-stranded DNA breaks (SSBs) instead. A more specific DNA repair pathway is then preferentially activated, allowing for chromosomal insertion of large DNA fragments in human cells whilst reducing the risk of mutation – a process termed in-trans paired nicking (ITPN).

Although promising, this approach is still in relative infancy and requires further research to optimize and quantify its efficiency. My current research lies in using ITPN to increase the efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9 endogenous loci targeting, specifically targeting the genes H2BC3 and KRT5. The former encodes histone H2Bn, a ubiquitous protein found in nucleosomes that have the ability to wrap and compact DNA into chromatin. KRT5 is expressed in basal cells, stem cells that make up a third of all airway epithelial cells. Both genes serve as controls to assess the gene editing efficiency and precision of ITPN for cellular disease modelling.