Building on the award-winning OxLAMPTM technology, Prof. Cui’s team will seek to develop rapid tests for a wide array of infectious diseases, such as influenza, dengue, Zika and hepatitis. Researchers will also work on developing low-cost, automated apparatus for household nucleic acid testing, allowing for in situ testing outside of the lab environment. Such nucleic acid testing apparatus will have applications in myriad scenarios, such as airports, train stations and schools where there’s there is high people traffic, as well as community health centres, community hospitals and clinics which struggle to provide specialised equipment and lab.
In vitro cell expansion platform
Prof. Cui and his team’s area of expertise lies in the in vitro isolation, purification, directed differentiation and massive expansion of mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, neural progenitor cells, skin fibroblasts and chondrocytes, as well as transgenic and nuclear transplantation techniques. The goal is to provide novel cell therapy techniques for clinical settings for the treatment of diseases such as spinal cord injury, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, osteoarthritis, osteonecrosis of the femoral head and intervertebral disc degeneration.