Chris Lo joined the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre as a PhD student in October 2022. For his PhD he will be utilising polygenic risk scores and metabolomics to achieve personalised prescribing of antidepressants in major depressive disorders. He works closely with collaborators from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium to construct polygenic risk score models for predicting treatment response to antidepressants.

Before joining the SGDP, Chris received his BPharm degree at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). During his time with the Department of Medicine at HKU, he reviewed the evidence on cardiovascular outcomes in antidiabetics and evaluated the associations between blood lead levels and hypertension using data from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. His research interests lie in big data research on medication safety and therapeutics. 

Chris also worked in the Centre for Safe Medication Practice and Research of HKU in 2021. He engaged in systematic review and data analysis of electronic health records as a part of his final year project, funded by the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme of HKU. He evaluated the associations between montelukast, a drug used in asthma, and the development of neuropsychiatric events.

Research interests

• Statistical Genetics
• Pharmacogenomics
• Precision Medicine
• Psychiatric Disorders

Key publications

• Lo CWH, Fei Y, Cheung BMY. Cardiovascular Outcomes in Trials of New Antidiabetic Drug Classes. Card Fail Rev. 2021 Mar 5;7:e04. doi: 10.15420/cfr.2020.19. PMID: 33747548; PMCID: PMC7970669.
• Tsoi MF, Lo CWH, Cheung TT, Cheung BMY. Blood lead level and risk of hypertension in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2016. Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 4;11(1):3010. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82435-6. PMID: 33542319; PMCID: PMC7862639.