2324 HKU Summer Immersion Programme (Neurodegenerative Research Laboratory)
To foster students' interest and understanding of neuroscience, seven of our students were selected to visit a Neurodegenerative Research Laboratory led by Professor Raymond C.C. Chang, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. This research laboratory focused on the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
During the immersion, our students were supervised by the different PhD students of Professor Raymond C.C. Chang to experience the daily routine of conducting scientific research.
A PhD student was introducing the zebrafish (Danio rerio), an animal model used in her research:
A brain from zebrafish was taken out and observed under microscope:
A PhD student was introducing one dendritic morphology methodology named Golgi stain, a technique enabling scientists to visualize neurons in their entirety throughout the brain. For example, this technique can help to study how stressors affect the structure and dendritic complexity of individual brain cells.
Students are practicing microsectioning, a process of cutting a brain into thin slices for subsequent histological procedures or microscopic examination.
