Date: Friday, 22 March 2019

Venue: Seminar Room 4, G/F
Laboratory Block, Faculty of Medicine Building
21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong

Time: 5:00 p.m.

Title: Mechanistic study of Salmonella-induced reduction of cancer metastasis
Speaker: Miss RONG Li (PhD candidate)

Summary:
Metastasis is one of the most lethal features of cancer. Bacterial cancer therapy offers a promising way to treat cancer and metastasis regardless of the existence of genetic heterogeneity in primary tumor and metastasis. Based on our previous work that Salmonella typhimurium strain YB1 can inhibit cancer metastasis, now we are working on exploring the underlying anti-metastasis mechanisms induced by YB1 infection. We have proved that the anti-metastasis effect induced by salmonella YB1 is inflammatory response dependent and thus it is intriguing question that what kind of immune responses can help fight against cancer metastasis, which has been confusing researchers for over one hundred years since the first use of Coley's toxins for cancer therapy.

Title: The role of DNA methylation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex stimulation
Speaker: Mr. POON Chi Him (PhD candidate)

Summary:
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising therapy for many neuropsychiatric disorders. Although previous findings demonstrated that DBS of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex enhanced memory performances and neurogenesis-related mechanisms, its effects on the epigenetic regulation and memory functions remain largely obscure. Recently, several studies demonstrate that aging is associated with an impairment of cognitive function and DNA methylation declines progressively with age. In my research, we aim to study the potential interactions between DNA methylation and DBS-induced memory enhancement in an aged animal model. Animals were treated with L-methionine together with chronic DBS (100Hz, 200μA), and they were subsequently tested for anxiety and memory-related behavioral tests. Interestingly, our results showed that DBS-alone animals exhibited enhanced spatial learning, while L-methionine treatment potentiated the DBS effects on learning performance in the Morris water maze test. For molecular mechanisms, the genes related to DNA methylation and memory functions were investigated.

ALL ARE WELCOME