Date: 20 August 2026 (Thursday)
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Venue: Seminar Room 1, G/F, Laboratory Block, 21 Sassoon Road 
Host: Professor Martin Cheung

After receiving the PhD degree in SBS of CUHK in 2020, I built my lab in the Joint School of Life Sciences in Guangzhou Medical University, and focused on the roles of mitochondria in cell fate determination and mitochondrial disease treatment. We revealed a new mechanism of mitochondrial nucleoid organization and transcription regulation by phase separation, and presented a novel role of nuclear translocation of mitochondrial TCA enzymes in cell reprogramming and cell fate transition. Furthermore, we developed a new technology of mitochondrial transplantation and studied its application in the treatment of mitochondrial diseases.  I have published 16 papers in Cell, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Science Advances, and so on, on this topic as corresponding or first author. I was rewarded as the Young Top Talent of Guangdong Province, Nanshan Scholar of Guangzhou. As a key member, I received the 2020 Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Award First Class and the Guangdong Precision Medicine Award First Class.

As a group of genetic diseases, mitochondrial diseases still lack efficient treatment. Mitochondrial transplantation holds great potential, but how to efficiently deliver mitochondria to somatic cells or tissues is still unsolved. We developed a new mitochondrial transplantation technology by encapsulating mitochondria with a membrane derived from erythrocytes. These mitochondrial capsules could deliver mitochondria into cells and tissues with high efficiency, and they could complement the loss, deletion or mutation of mitochondrial DNA, thereby rescuing the associated bioenergetic and biochemical defects in patient-derived cells with mitochondrial disorders. Furthermore, mitochondrial capsules rescued the mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome and Leigh syndrome in Dguok-/- and Ndufs4-/- mouse models, respectively. Moreover, mitochondrial capsules rescued neuron loss, improved motor skills and restored mitochondrial function in a model of Parkinson’s disease. Mitochondrial transplantation by mitochondrial capsule provides a potential treatment for mitochondrial disorders, and proposes an “organelle therapy” strategy in regenerative medicine.

All are welcome.