Our academic staffs carry out a variety of clinical and laboratory research studies covering the areas of acute and chronic pain management, anaesthetic therapies development, and postoperative cognitive dysfunction.

Our pain laboratory research studies the mechanisms of pain, specifically hyperalgesia and chronic pain development, and the possible therapeutics for pain management. We use a variety of pain models, including inflammatory pain, post-stroke pain, neuropathic pain in vivo in transgenic mice and SD rats. We also study the mechanisms of several drugs with the aid of some astrocytic cell culture model.

Some Current Research Projects

• The effects on anaesthesia on cancer
• Total Intravenous Anaesthesia (clinical application and education)
• Enhanced recovery after surgery
• Aerosol generation during airway instrumentation
• Novel Ultra-Effective Anti-Viral Respirator (UAR) for Healthcare Workers: Design and Development (with City University, Hong Kong)
• Human stem cell therapy for the nerve regeneration and  treatment of neuropathic pain
• Investigation of metabolic switching and underlying molecular mechanism in pain induction
• Metabolic control in the Peripheral nervous system(PNS) development
• Development of simulation training as a pedagogical approach in clinical teaching and learning at HKUMed
• The evaluation of insulin resistance as a precipitating factor for postoperative cognitive dysfunction 
• Forced resistant exercise preconditioning reduces postoperative cognitive dysfunction in mice
• Investigating the effect of sleep disturbance on surgery-induced cognitive decline through cAMP/PKA pathway in mouse model
• Investigating the role of adiponectin in sevoflurane induced cognitive dysfunction in an obese animal model
• Investigating the role of Egr1 induced by sevoflurane anesthesia in circadian rhythm change in mice
• Investigating the use of a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory herbal, siegesbeckia herba in minimising postoperative cognitive dysfunction
• Laboratory and Clinical Research Unit for Pain