Bingei and L & T Charitable Foundation Professorship in Dementia Research

Someone in the world develops dementia every 3 seconds with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common cause of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60% to 80% of cases. In 2020, there were over 55 million people worldwide living with dementia according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. This figure is rising rapidly and is forecasted to reach 78 million in 2030 and 139 million by 2050.

Alzheimer’s disease is a major cause of death globally among people aged from 65 or above. With an aging population across the world, particularly in China, India and other parts of Asia, scientists are searching not just for a cure, but methods of prevention and ways to slow down the disease and to create a better therapeutic strategy against neurodegenerative diseases.

Professor Raymond Chang Chuen-Chung is the Bingei and L & T Charitable Foundation Professor in Dementia Research and is a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). His main research interest is pathophysiological changes of Alzheimer’s disease and the risk factors, including depression, cigarette smoking, infection, wound injury, and environmental toxins, that lead to dementia in Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Chang is the Lab Chief for the Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases in the School of Biomedical Sciences where his team is studying “neuronal death in aging-associated neurodegenerative diseases in order to develop neuroprotective agents”. The team has discovered that stimulation of our immune system by infection, injuries and even obesity can trigger the brain immune responses and affect progression of dementia.

Professor Chang is also investigating the impact of immune responses in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and glaucoma and the biological mechanisms of different risk factors leading to neurodegeneration, and how to prevent different risk factors.

Professor Chang received his undergraduate training in Biochemistry in Hong Kong focusing on neurochemistry. He then learnt neuroimmunology, neuroanatomy and neurochemistry for his MPhil study. He then moved to the University of Munich, Institute for Surgical Research in Germany for his PhD working on clinical neuroscience and neurophysiology. Thereafter, he moved on to the National Institutes of Health for his postdoctoral training working on molecular neuroscience and neuropharmacology.

Professor Chang is a member in The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and the Founder and Secretary of HKU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Network. He is in the International Advisory Board of International AD/PD Symposium, Scientific Review Committee in US Alzheimer’s Association. Professor Chang is the Chief Editor for American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, which has 25 years history in the Alzheimer’s disease field. He was the Senior Editor for the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, and is now the Managing Editor for Neuroimmunomodulation.

He has published over 198 peer-reviewed papers, 15 book chapters and edited 4 books in his field of expertise, and is a member of the editorial boards of more than 20 different journals. He has been listed as Top 1% Scholar by Clarivate Analytics since 2018. Examples of his peer-reviewed papers are published in Acta Neuropathologica, Autophagy, Journal of Neuroinflammation, Experimental and Molecular Medicine, Progress in Neurobiology, Ageing Research Review, Brain, Behavior & Immunity, Aging cell, and Redox Biology.