Professor Zhou Renjie, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Electronic Engineering (by courtesy), has been elected as a 2027 Fellow of Optica for innovating label-free optical imaging techniques, especially quantitative phase imaging, and demonstrating their research and industrial impacts.

The Board of Directors of Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, recently elected 116 members from 23 countries to the Society’s 2027 Fellow Class. This year’s election was highly competitive, with a record 287 nominations submitted by current Fellows. The 2027 cohort includes leading researchers and scholars from many renowned institutions such as MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, Max Planck, Tsinghua, and Peking University.

Professor Zhou received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014, followed by postdoctoral training at the George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Lab at MIT before joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2017. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Electronic Engineering (by courtesy) at CUHK, where he directs the Laser Metrology and Biomedicine Lab. His research has been focused on advancing light microscopy technologies, specifically the field of quantitative phase imaging (QPI), and demonstrating their impact across fields. He has published over 70 journal papers in Nature Photonics, Light: Science & Applications, Optics Letters, etc., over 60 conference proceedings, and filed over 15 patents. He has successfully transferred his QPI technologies to industry through his startup, Bay Jay Ray, which recently won the 2^nd  Prize at the HICOOL 2025 Global Entrepreneur Summit and deployed products across industry and academia.

In recent years, Professor Zhou has received the Croucher Innovation Awards from the Croucher Foundation (2019), the Young Scientist Award from the Electromagnetics Academy (2023), the Excellent Young Scientists Fund from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2024), and the Hong Kong RGC Research Fellow Scheme (2025). In addition to his recent election as an Optica Fellow, Professor Zhou was elected as a Fellow of SPIE (The International Society for Optics and Photonics) and a Member of The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences (YASHK) earlier this year.

This recognition reflects the work of Professor Zhou’s team in quantitative phase imaging, as well as the sustained support, excellent infrastructure, and collaborative environment fostered by the Faculty of Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

About Optica

Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the Society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students, and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.

A research team led by Professor Alan Li Zhong, Vice-Chancellor Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has developed a first-of-it-kind “microbe-gut-cartilage axis-on-a-chip” (MGCAoC). This tiny, human cell-based platform mimics how gut microbes influence joint health, revealing how specific probiotics and their metabolites promote cartilage growth and reduce joint inflammation. The findings offer new hope for treating osteoarthritis and have been published in the prestigious international journal Science Advances.

Overcoming the limitations of traditional animal and laboratory models

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint diseases in the world, causing chronic pain, stiffness and reduced mobility, often severely impacting patients’ quality of life. Current treatments mainly manage symptoms, with very few options able to stop the disease from worsening.

Beyond aiding digestion, gut microbes also produce small molecules that can affect the immune system and inflammation throughout the body. Researchers have therefore investigated whether gut microbes may influence joints and play a role in the development or progression of osteoarthritis. However, tests on animals often fail to accurately replicate how the human body actually works. At the same time, standard laboratory culture dishes cannot keep gut bacteria and joint cells alive together because they require completely different living conditions. As a result, directly studying the gut-joint connection has remained a major challenge.

A human chip model that rebuilds the gut-cartilage connection

To address this challenge, the research team developed the first microfluidic platform that integrates gut microbes, intestinal epithelium and human cartilage organoids in a single system. The chip was carefully engineered to create an anoxic-oxic interface that supports probiotic growth, while also providing fluid flow conditions that more closely resemble those in the human body. Importantly, it allows certain probiotic metabolites produced on the gut side to reach the cartilage side without unwanted cross-contamination. In other words, the chip acts like a tiny and controllable human-inspired model, allowing researchers to observe how gut microbes affect cartilage in real time.

Probiotics linked to healthier joint cartilage

Using this platform, the researchers introduced specific probiotics into the gut module and studied how the cartilage organoids responded. They found that probiotic-related signals were associated with improved cartilage development. The cartilage organoids showed higher levels of key anabolic markers, including collagen type II and aggrecan, while molecules linked to tissue breakdown were reduced.

The team further tested the system under inflammatory conditions relevant to osteoarthritis. Even in this pro-inflammatory environment, probiotic-derived signals were associated with lower inflammatory responses and better preservation of cartilage structure. These findings suggest that specific probiotics may have a protective effect on joint cartilage.

Study reveals possible biological mechanisms

To better understand how these effects occur, the team carried out multi-omics analyses and identified several candidate metabolites and signalling pathways that may mediate communication between gut microbes and cartilage. The results suggest that the beneficial effects of probiotics and their metabolites may be linked to important signalling pathways, such as PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK, which are known to regulate cell growth, tissue development and inflammatory responses. Further experiments using cartilage organoids derived from osteoarthritis patients demonstrated that certain probiotic-derived metabolites could reduce inflammatory and degenerative markers, supporting their therapeutic potential and providing a foundation for developing more targeted therapies with fewer adverse effects.

Opening new avenues for osteoarthritis therapies

Professor Li said: “This study is the first to establish an in vitro human model of the microbe-gut-cartilage axis. It provides researchers with a new way to directly investigate the causal relationship between gut microbes and joint health in a controlled setting. Beyond helping scientists better understand osteoarthritis, the platform could also be used in the future to screen probiotics, functional metabolites and other microbiome-based treatment strategies. The team believes this work may help open a new avenue for osteoarthritis research, one that starts from the gut to protect the joints.”

Twelve emerging scholars from the Faculty of Engineering have been awarded the 2026 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund, securing over RMB 5.3 million in total. Among the awardees, one scholar received the Young Scientists Fund (Category A), while eleven scholars secured Category C funding across fundamental research disciplines.

Professor HUANG Chaoran from Department of Electronic Engineering was awarded Category B funding. Formerly known as “Excellent Young Scientists Fund”, Category B grants support young scientists who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in fundamental research and are poised to become future leaders in their fields. Each funded project receives RMB 2 million for a period of three years.

Eleven scholars, namely Professor LI Tiantian and Professor SHAO Baihao from Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor LI Shaohua and Professor WANG Zhengrong from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor CAI Yuting and Professor GAO Huxin from Department of Electronic Engineering, Professor AI Fei, Professor FANG Guoxin, Professor LI Zhongyu, Professor LIAO Shuheng, and Professor LIU Xiaohua from Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, secured Category C funding. Formerly known as “Young Scientists Fund”, Category C grants support emerging researchers in conducting fundamental research and developing their ability to lead research and innovative projects. Each project receives RMB 300,000 for a period of three years.

More details: CUHK secures over RMB30 million in 2026 NSFC funding as 32 young scholars earn prestigious national grants

The Unmanned Systems Research Group supervised by Professor Ben M. CHEN and Professor Xi CHEN from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering led the charge alongside Wuhan University and the Beijing Institute of Technology in winning 1^st place in the Indoor Competition Challenge and 2^nd place in the Outdoor Competition Challenge at the 17^th International Micro Air Vehicle Competition (IMAV 2026), held in Strasbourg, France, from September 21-25, 2026.

The team named CWB Lions* is a collaborative force between three research groups from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Wuhan University, and Beijing Institute of Technology with additional support from the Hong Kong Centre for Logistics Robotics, Professor Dong ZHOU of Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhuhai JOYRAR Education Technology Co., Ltd., Zhuhai Low-Altitude Industry Investment & Operation Co., Ltd., and the Zhuhai Dahua Hongkong Macau Youth Innovation and Pioneer Service Center.

Every year, IMAV’s challenges use real-life scenarios to inspire their competition tasks. This year their indoor and outdoor competition challenges were both inspired by emergency response tasks. The indoor competition focused on firefighter training courses which test the limits of drones in small spaces and high-precision task execution. The outdoor competition was inspired by forest fire first response operations, testing team capabilities in both speed and task capacity. Teams who join IMAV utilise cutting-edge designs and robust systems to score points in quality of task completion, speed, and hardware system optimization.

About IMAV

The IMAV is an annual international event bringing together scientists, technologists, and enthusiasts on the research and technological development of Micro-Air Vehicles (MAVs). This is one of the major micro air vehicle competitions held annually worldwide. More information can be found at www.imavs.org.

*Team members:

CUHK:

Haosen CAO, Jingheng SHAO, Zongzhou WU, Jialiang WANG (team leader), Yanqi ZHAO, Ruixin YAN (HKCLR), Pei WANG (HKCLR), Joanna CHEN (HKCLR)

Supervisors: Professor Ben M. CHEN, Professor Xi CHEN

Wuhan University:

Zhiyu ZHOU, Yuhan ZHU, Hanqing WU, Hang ZHEN, Xiaohan YU, Yutong LIU

Supervisor: Professor Zhi GAO

Beijing Institute of Technology:

Mengyi ZHENG and Mengqing LI

Supervisor: Professor Bin XIN