Dr Stephanie Ma Kwai-yee — Pulling Out the Weeds | 馬桂宜博士 — 削株掘根 剷除癌症

(中文版見於下方)

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are like weeds: cutting off the heads will not be enough to kill them, the roots must also be pulled out. Dr Stephanie Ma Kwai-yee, Associate Professor of the School of Biomedical Sciences, has been at the forefront in addressing this problem and her success has made her one of top one per cent most-cited scholars in her field from 2010 to 2018, as measured by Essential Science Indicators.

Dr Ma’s research interest focuses on identifying novel stemness vulnerabilities in cancer, using the Asian prevalent tumour type, hepatocellular (liver) carcinoma, as a model system. Her work demonstrated the existence of a subpopulation of cells within the liver tumour called CSCs that is associated with the unfavorable outcome of the disease through contributing to tumour recurrence and therapy resistance. And indeed, this special subpopulation of cells is now known to represent an important root of cancer. She and her team subsequently discovered a protein that plays a critical role in therapy resistance and developed an antibody to target the protein in mouse models and patient samples, which was able to reduce the ability of liver cancer cells to initiate tumour growth and self-renew. The antibody has been patented and licensed.

Dr Ma believes that targeting cancer stem cells is a new venture for precision medicine in oncology. The current goals of her team are to establish new molecular signatures and markers for predicting occurrence, recurrence and drug resistance, to improve patient stratification and identify actionable targets directed at cancer stemness for precision medicine.

Biography

Dr Stephanie Ma Kwai-yee is a tenured Associate Professor of the School of Biomedical Sciences, HKUMed and Principal Investigator of the State Key Laboratory of Liver Research, HKU. She obtained both her Bachelor of
Science (Cell Biology and Genetics) and Master of Science (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) at The University of British Columbia (Canada). Then she returned to her home country and completed her PhD study and received
postdoctoral training at HKU.

Dr Ma’s research interest focuses on identifying novel stemness vulnerabilities in cancer, using Asian prevalent tumour types like hepatocellular carcinoma as model systems. Her research team is interested in understanding how a stemness microenvironment in cancer contributes to drug resistance and tumour recurrence.

Dr Ma is also a founding member of The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences and currently chairs their outreach committee to help promote STEM education in Hong Kong. She is also a member of the Future Forum Young Scientist Innovation Alliance in China.

(This article was originally published in Medical Faculty News)

癌幹細胞（CSC）就好像雜草般，要徹底剷除，必須連根拔起。生物醫學學院副教授馬桂宜博士一直是破解癌幹細胞領域的先驅。根據基本科學指標數據庫，從2010年至 2018年，她發表的多篇論文，讓她在相關領域中躋身為獲引用最多的首1%研究學者。

馬博士的研究範疇主要是利用亞洲常見的癌症類型如肝癌為模型系統，尋找癌幹細胞裡容易受攻擊的新弱點。她的研究證實在肝癌腫瘤裡找到被稱為癌幹細胞的亞族群細胞，具有治療耐藥性，也與病情復發有關，令治癒效果不樂觀。這些特別的亞族群細胞，是現時已知誘發癌症的重要根源。馬博士和她的團隊又發現一種在癌症治療中，對抗藥性過程有關鍵作用的蛋白質，團隊從而在小鼠模型和病人樣本中，以這個蛋白質為標靶研發抗體，希望減低肝癌細胞誘發腫瘤生長和自我分裂的能力。這個抗體已經註冊及取得專利。

馬博士相信以癌幹細胞為標靶，是腫瘤精準醫學的治療新嘗試。她與團隊現時的目標是在預測病發、復發和抗藥性方面建立新的分子標記，以改善病人的分類，以及在精準醫學治療中，針對癌幹細胞作出辨識及尋找可以採用的標靶。

簡歷

馬桂宜博士是港大醫學院生物醫學學院副教授，也是 港大肝病研究國家重點實驗室的首席研究員。馬博士 在加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學取得細胞生物學及遺傳學 學士學位，以及病理學及實驗室醫學碩士學位之後，於 香港大學完成博士學位及接受博士後培訓。

馬博士的研究範疇主要是利用亞洲常見的癌症類型如 肝癌作為模型系統，來辨識癌細胞的新弱點。她的研究 團隊亦致力了解癌症中的幹細胞微環境如何導致耐藥 性和腫瘤復發。

身兼香港青年科學院創始成員的馬博士，目前擔任該院 的外展委員會主席，以推進香港的STEM教育; 她亦是 中國未來論壇青年科學家創新聯盟成員。

(原文刊登於港大醫學院 Medical Faculty News)