Prof. YANG M (楊夢甦)

Professor Michael Yang is currently Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise), Yeung Kin-Man Chair Professor (Biomedical Sciences), and Director of the Tung Biomedical Sciences Centre of City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He received his BSc from Xiamen University, PhD from the University of Toronto, and postdoctoral training from The Scripps Research Institute, USA. He joined CityU in 1994, and rose through the ranks of assistant professor (1994-1998), associate professor (1998-2002), professor (2002-2007), and chair professor (since 2007). He was the Founding Head of Department of Biomedical Sciences (2013-2018), Acting Dean of College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (2019-2020), Vice President (Research and Technology) (2020-2023), and appointed as Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise) (since May 2023), responsible for innovation, knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurship.

Professor Yang’s research interests focus on studying cancer biology and developing biochips and nanotechnology for diagnostics and therapeutic applications. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, received/filed 54 US/China patents, delivered over 150 lectures in international conferences and academic institutions. He was listed among the top 2% of the world’s most highly cited scientists, according to metrics compiled by Stanford University from 2020 to 2022. He has trained over 40 PhD graduates and 30 postdoctoral fellows, and co-founded several biotech companies based on technologies developed in his laboratory, including Genetel, Prenetics and Cellomics. He was awarded the “Chunhui Scholar Award” by the Ministry of Education of China in 2003, the “K. C. Wong Foundation Award” in 2004, the “Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Award” in 2006, the “Hong Kong Technological Achievement Grand Award” in 2007, the “Natural Science Award, Second-Class” from the Ministry of Education in 2015, the “Wuxi AppTech Life Science and Chemistry Award” in 2016, and a Gold Medal at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in 2019.

Professor Yang also serves on the Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council, the Health and Medical Research Fund, and the Innovation and Technology Fund. He holds Honorary Professorships at the Institute of Microsystems of the Chinese Academy of Science, Zhejiang University, and the Army Medical University. He is the vice-president of the Hong Kong Biotechnology Association, a council member of the Asia Federation of Biotechnology, a scientific advisor of the government-funded Hong Kong Genome Centre, and a mentor of the Hong Kong X platform.

Professor Yang is responsible for the “HK Tech 300” initiative, the leading university-based entrepreneurship program in Asia, with the aims to promote innovation, technology transfer and commercialization, and to provide an ecosystem for young people to start their entrepreneurship journey. Since 2020, “HK Tech 300” has incubated more than 600 startups, and expanded to Mainland China and Southeast Asia, making significant contribution to developing Hong Kong into an international hub of innovation and technology.  

• Cancer Biology
• Microfluidic Technology
• Nanomedicine