Clinical Departments and Research Strengths: Liver Transplantation, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Oncology and Metabolism

This article belongs to the 11 Medicine/Hospital module of the "HKU Unofficial History" series, covering the strengths of clinical departments. The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed) uses Queen Mary Hospital as its main teaching hospital and is a powerhouse in clinical and translational medicine in the Asia-Pacific region. This piece examines its major clinical departments and world-class strengths one by one, and outlines its State Key Laboratory platform. The focus is a three-in-one deep dive: department — strengths — breakthroughs.

For the medical school structure and curriculum, see ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md; for teaching hospitals, see ./teaching-hospitals.md; for the School of Public Health, see ./school-of-public-health-and-chinese-medicine.md. This module is part of the 00–12 reference zone; no credibility badges are assigned. Neutral academic achievements are recorded by name. Data as of June 2026.

# 1. Overview (Quick Reference)

# 2. Department of Surgery: The “World Paradigm” of Living Donor Liver Transplantation

# 2.1 Fan Sheung-tat and Adult Right Lobe Living Donor Liver Transplantation (1996)

The Department of Surgery’s most globally influential achievement is adult-to-adult living donor right lobe liver transplantation. According to the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences page for Academician Fan Sheung-tat^※ and multiple peer-reviewed publications, in 1996, Professor Fan pioneered the technique of using a right lobe liver graft for adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation — a technique that has since been widely adopted and is regarded as a major breakthrough in the history of liver transplantation.

Previously, living donor liver transplantation mostly used the smaller left lobe grafts, which could not provide sufficient liver volume for adult recipients; the right lobe approach solved the critical bottleneck of “insufficient graft volume”, making adult-to-adult living donor transplantation a feasible routine procedure worldwide.

# 2.2 Lo Chung-mau and the Queen Mary Hospital Liver Transplant Centre

Professor Lo Chung-mau, a student of Fan and a member of the Department of Surgery, continued and refined the technique. According to the Department of Surgery’s profile for Professor Lo Chung-mau^※, his seminal work in adult right lobe living donor transplantation “revolutionised global liver transplant practice and put Hong Kong on the world liver transplant map” (「革新了全球肝移植實踐，把香港放上了世界肝移植版圖」). Their work was carried out at the Queen Mary Hospital Liver Disease Research Centre and within HKU’s Department of Surgery.

Queen Mary Hospital has been Hong Kong’s designated liver transplant centre since 2003^※ (see ./teaching-hospitals.md).

# 2.3 Other Divisions of the Department of Surgery

According to the Department of Surgery’s official website, it houses several clinical divisions including: cardiothoracic surgery, colorectal surgery, endocrine surgery, oesophageal and upper gastrointestinal surgery, head and neck surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, liver transplantation, neurosurgery, otorhinolaryngology, paediatric surgery, vascular surgery, urology^※. Among these, cardiothoracic surgery relocated to Queen Mary Hospital in 2008^※, collaborating with the heart transplant team at Grantham Hospital.

# 3. Department of Microbiology and Public Health: Frontline in Two Coronavirus Pandemics

During the 2003 SARS outbreak and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, HKU’s Department of Microbiology and School of Public Health twice positioned themselves at the global forefront of research. According to HKU’s “Remembering SARS 2003” official page^※, under the leadership of Malik Peiris (Chair of Virology, joined HKU in 1995) and Yuen Kwok-yung (Head of Microbiology), HKU teams isolated and cultured the SARS virus, systematically proving the coronavirus as its causative agent (The Lancet, 2003); Yuen’s team further traced the SARS coronavirus gene to wild bats and, since 2003, discovered over 30 new human and animal coronaviruses — including the HKU-named human coronavirus HKU1 (detected in 2004 from a man with pneumonia). During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Peiris and colleagues produced the first microscopic images of the virus replicating inside cells and rapidly developed a test for SARS-CoV-2, which was shared with over 70 countries and territories upon request.

# 4. Department of Medicine: The Clinical Map of 13 Divisions

The Department of Medicine is one of the largest clinical departments in the medical faculty. According to the Department of Medicine’s “Divisions / Centres / Units” official page^※, it encompasses 13 divisions:

# 4.1 Cardiology and Heart Transplantation

Regarding Hong Kong’s heart transplant service, according to the Hospital Authority’s relevant materials^※, the heart transplant team was established in 1991 and performed the first successful heart transplant at Grantham Hospital in 1992; since then, Grantham Hospital has long served as the territory’s tertiary referral centre for heart transplantation. The Division of Cardiology within HKU's Department of Medicine, together with the cardiothoracic surgical team and Grantham’s cardiology department, jointly support this service. Arrhythmia management and implantable device therapy are among the traditional strengths of HKU’s cardiology division (according to the academic profile of Honorary Clinical Professor Lau Chu-pak^※).

# 4.2 Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

The Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism has an international profile in diabetes, obesity, and adipokine research. According to the English Wikipedia entry for “Karen Lam”^※, Karen Lam is the Rosie T.T. Young Chair Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism at HKU, focusing on diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, with a particular emphasis on adipocyte hormones. Professor Aimin Xu has made systematic contributions to the adipokine network, especially adiponectin, and serves as the director of the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology^※.

# 5. Department of Clinical Oncology and Cancer Research

The Department of Clinical Oncology, according to its official “About the department” page^※, is one of the powerhouses for both clinical and non-clinical research, especially renowned for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) research — NPC has a high incidence in South China and has long been a shared research focus of Hong Kong’s two medical schools. The Division of Haematology, Medical Oncology, and HSCT within the Department of Medicine, along with the various solid tumour teams in the Department of Surgery, together constitute HKU’s oncology clinical and research network.

# 6. State Key Laboratories: The “National Team” of HKU Medicine

HKU hosts several State Key Laboratories (SKLs); those closely related to medicine, according to the HKU Research Office’s “State Key Labs” page^※, include:

According to HKU reports^※, the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, among others, was one of the first State Key Laboratories established outside mainland China. As part of the national science and technology research system, it plays the role of a base for top-tier basic research and talent training. These laboratories connect HKUMed’s three major clinical strengths — infectious diseases, liver disease, and metabolism — with national-level research platforms.

# 7. See Also

• Medical faculty structure, five schools, MBBS: ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md
• Teaching hospitals (Queen Mary, Grantham, Shenzhen), transplant hub: ./teaching-hospitals.md
• Faculty of Dentistry: ./faculty-of-dentistry.md
• School of Public Health (WHO role), Chinese Medicine: ./school-of-public-health-and-chinese-medicine.md
• University-wide research and State Key Laboratories: ../04-research/