A deep commitment to improving the treatment and management of schizophrenia and related mental dysfunctions has brought world-renowned neuroscientist and psychologist Prof. Benjamin Yee to PolyU, where he sees many exciting possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and beyond.

Intrigued by how brain abnormalities can give rise to schizophrenia symptoms since he was a psychology undergraduate at University College London, Prof. Benjamin Yee first researched the disease while studying for his DPhil at the University of Oxford. Using a rat model with induced behavioural deficits, he found that he could normalise the animals' behaviour with anti-schizophrenia medication. Following postdoctoral positions in the UK, Hong Kong and Switzerland, he spent more than a decade at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. There he developed a mouse model of schizophrenia that captured the link between infection during pregnancy and the emergence of behavioural problems in offspring.

Reflecting on the significance of such efforts, Prof. Yee explained that schizophrenia, which causes profound disruptions in thinking and chronic deterioration in cognitive faculties, affects more than 21 million people worldwide, impairing the capability of many to earn a livelihood. "Improving the treatment and management of schizophrenia", he said, "means much more than reducing premature death and recovering lost productivity; it is about reducing human suffering and restoring human dignity." Currently used drugs control some symptoms, but also cause long-term deterioration in cognitive functions such as memory and attention.

 

Prof. Yee values the education of a new generation of scientists to sustain the impactful research in neuroscience

Prof. Yee remarked that a better understanding of the biological causes of schizophrenia would allow the identification of the responsible brain abnormalities, and thus new drug targets and new forms of therapy to delay or halt cognitive deterioration. His findings in this direction have had a wide influence, earning him an impressive h-index of 44, but Prof. Yee suggested that neuroscience is a "rapidly developing and exciting field" and that the score "speaks positively of my research field as much as my own work". He humbly saw his work as contributing to the continual effort to study complex human behaviour and traits using animal models, particularly through developing with colleagues a more holistic approach to evaluating the behavioural impacts of manipulations of single genes.

At the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, which he joined in December 2015 after spending time as Director of Behavioural Neuroscience at the Legacy Research Institute in Oregon, USA, Prof. Yee is offering new ideas for interdisciplinary research, looking to strengthen the experimental hypothesis-driven approach, and devising an appropriate translational research framework. He is also excited about fostering inter-departmental collaboration to promote lifelong health and well-being, and benefiting from the diverse expertise available at PolyU, with its many platforms for technical innovation.

These endeavours, along with existing collaborative links with scholars in Europe, the USA and the Chinese mainland, will ensure Prof. Yee's continued ability to conduct research at the cutting edge of neuroscience. Yet they will also serve an even more important purpose. Long after his findings and insights are superseded, his legacy will persist through the new generation of scientists he has trained. ♦