Academic Staff

Dr. Chunyi WEN, Associate Professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering, leads a research group in Hong Kong to combat osteoarthritis, a leading cause of chronic pain and disability in older adults affecting 500 million people worldwide. Dr. Wen obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chinese University of Hong Kong and received postgraduate training in Johns Hopkins University in U.S., and University of Oxford in U.K.. In his early academic career, Dr. Wen’s work on bone and joint injury and degeneration from mechanism towards therapeutics. He contributed to discovery of TGF-beta1 as a key regulator in subchondral bone disturbance and osteoarthritis pathogenesis (Nature Medicine 2013). His work has been recognized by Young Investigator Award, Mr. Savio Woo and Mrs. Pattie Woo Travel Fellowship, AOSpine East Asia (AOSEA) Research Grant award and AOSEA Travel Grant, and Oldendorf Award.  Since joining PolyU BME, Dr. Wen’s research centers on vascular etiology of osteoarthritis. Under the auspices of RGC ECS and GRF, Dr. Wen and his team finally identified endothelin-1 (ET-1), the most potent vasoconstrictor in hypertension, contributing to articular chondrocyte senescence and osteoarthritis pathology (Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2015 and 2020). It substantiates the vascular etiology hypothesis of osteoarthritis and opens a new avenue for discovery of novel mechanism-based disease-modifying therapies against osteoarthritis (Nature Review Rheumatology 2021) Along this research direction, Dr. Wen has secured the external research fund over 10 million HKD in the capacity of PI from RGC, HMRF and ITF. Meanwhile, we kicked off formal research collaboration with world-leading research institutes such as Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford (Prof. Tonia Vincent, HMRF research fellowship) and Sorbonne University in Paris (Prof. Francis Berenbaum, PROCORE-France/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme and INSERM International Research Program). Dr. Wen envisions developing PolyU BME as a regional leading and international renowned osteoarthritis research center.

• Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Honorary Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
• Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Master of Medical Science (Orthopedic Surgery), Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
• MB.BS, West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, China
• Medical License (POC)