Prof. CAI Wenlong (蔡文龍)

Dr. Wenlong (Colin) Cai joined City University of Hong Kong in October 2021 as an Assistant Professor in Aquatic Animal Health in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health.

He obtained both MSc and PhD degrees from the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Science at Auburn University (Auburn, AL, USA), and he also held a joint master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine (MVM) from Shanghai Ocean University (Shanghai, China). His doctoral research involved the study of virulence factors of warm water fish pathogens, and the mechanism of action for a live-modified vaccine against columnaris disease in catfish. Afterwards, he became a postdoctoral fellow and adjunct faculty at the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) at University of Prince Edward Island (PE, Canada), where he worked on fish immune response to pathogen co-infection and functional feed.

He has also served as the chief bacteriology diagnostician for the Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Auburn University in Alabama (USA), and the coordinator for annual hatchery checks (bacterial and virology sections) for state hatcheries in the southeastern United States.

Dr. Cai’s research covers a broad range of topics in Aquatic Animal Health, including but not limited to, bacterial host-pathogen interactions, vaccine development, fish immune pathway analysis and the impact of functional feeds. His overall research goal is to identify the interaction of molecular pathways between the fish host and bacterial pathogens, and use this knowledge to develop novel treatment strategies for disease mitigation in aquaculture.