About us

HKUST Geobiology Group was estabilished in 2022. We are interested in understanding the interactions of biosphere and the geosphere. Particularly, we now have a strong focus on trace metal biogeochemstry. We use laboratory measurements and quantitative models to understand a range of processes governing trace metal distribution and isotope ratios in various biological and environmental systems.


Our group has access to the following key facilities:

Incubators: several light incubators that are dedicated to the team for culturing experiments.

Trace-metal-free laminar flow cabinets: one polycarbonate made laminar flow biological safety hood that is dedicated to trace-metal-free biological work and a polycarbonate made laminar flow extraction hood that is specifically for sample preparation (e.g., cell digestion) for trace metal analysis.

Acid-purification system: two DST-4000 acid purification systems to produce high-purity acids for cleaning plasticware, sample digestion, and trace metal analysis.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS): a new NEXION 5000 ICP-MS coupled with single cell introduction system for analysing the metallomes of phytoplankton.

Cleansuite and MC-ICP-MS for trace metal stable isotope analysis (available in 2024).

Other necessary facilities available in HKUST are including EMs, coulter counter, multi-mode plate reader, Phyto-PAM, CHN Elemental Analyser, facilities for proteomic analysis, and High Performance Computing Cluster.


Our current projects can be found here. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in joining the group or for future collaboration.