Date: July 11, 2023

Source: Nanfang +

Author: MA Limin, BIAN Delong, LIANG Jucong

Translator: MENG Yangxiangqi

As one of the first Hong Kong scientists to set up a joint laboratory in mainland China, Su Guohui, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Institute of Central Nervous System Regeneration at Jinan University, has been working full-time on the mainland for 11 years. He led a team studying new strategies for central nerve regeneration and neuroplasticity, achieving the first systematic research in mainland China on the effect of non-pharmacological means, including exercise and compound of Chinese herbal medicine, to treat depression.

As a vigorous academician who enjoys sports himself, Su studies how sports improve emotional and cognitive functions, figuring out how emotions are affected.

Known as the Popular Science Grandpa, he is passionate about popularizing scientific knowledge and often shares research stories, planting seeds of scientific dreams among teenagers.

He is also a scientist of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, shuttling among the three to build a bridge for cooperation and exchange of science and technology.

Playing sports is a routine for him, both in life and in his research work.

Su's team carried out another set of projects: studies on the molecular mechanisms by which exercise improves emotional and cognitive functions; discovery of the neural circuits by which optical information regulates emotion and behavior; systematic research on the protective effects of Lycium barbarum (goji) extract on nerve damage; and completion of the world's first three-generation sequencing of the Asian reference genome. All these projects achieved internationally leading results.

Su is one of the first group of expert members of the Guangzhou Popular Science Research Think Tank and honorary president of the Whampoa Youth Academy of Science in Guangzhou. Over the years, he has often been seen on the campuses of schools at various levels in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

On May 30 he was nominated by the Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology as one of the most respected scientists and technicians of 2023 in Guangdong.

Now also a chair professor at the University of Hong Kong, Su commutes between Guangzhou and Hong Kong almost every month, bringing together neuroscientists from the two places to promote research projects for mutual benefit.