Cambridge researcher awarded Autism Research Fellowship in Neuroscience will divide his time between Cambridge and Hong Kong

Research links between the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the Chinese 探花直播 of Hong Kong (CUHK) were deepened following the award of the inaugural CUHK Autism Research Fellowship in Neuroscience to Cambridge doctoral candidate听Dwaipayan (Deep) Adhya.

Mr Adhya, a physiologist and biochemist by training, recently completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof听Simon Baron-Cohen, at Cambridge, and Prof听Jack Price, of Kings College London. As part of the agreement between the 探花直播 of Cambridge and CUHK, he will be based at Cambridge鈥檚 Autism Research Centre, where he will focus on studying the role of sex hormones in autism. During the period of the Fellowship, he will also spend time at CUHK to build the collaboration.

He plans to use the revolutionary biotechnology known as induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived neurons. 探花直播technique allows scientists to take any cell in the body from a living person, reprogram it back into being a stem cell, and then program it to grow into a nerve cell (neuron). In this way, Dr Adhya will be able to study autistic neurons as they would have grown in the womb, from human patients, and track their development from the embryonic stage. 听

探花直播groundbreaking method has many advantages over previous methods such as using post-mortem brain tissue or experimental animals, neither of which allow the study of autism from the embryonic stage forward. This will build on Dr Adhya鈥檚 earlier research to enable the study of the links between genetics, gender and hormones in the autistic brain.

探花直播agreement that led to the creation of the CUHK Autism Research Fellowship was signed by the Vice-Chancellors of 听the 探花直播 of Cambridge and听CUHK, in February 2015.

Prof Simon Baron-Cohen said: 鈥淲e are delighted that Deep has been awarded this fellowship, which will allow him to take forward his innovative doctoral work. 探花直播team in Cambridge and CUHK will deepen our understanding of the causes of autism.鈥

Prof Patrick Leung, Chair of CUHK鈥檚 Department of Psychology, added: 鈥淲e are very excited to have the first CUHK Autism Research Fellow in Neuroscience in place, and to continue our universities鈥 joint research into autism.鈥


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