People · Principal investigator

Portrait of Guoxin Cui outdoors on a green hillside

Guoxin Cui崔國新

Assistant Professor · School of Life Sciences · CUHK

Guoxin is a molecular biologist who studies the conversation between cnidarian animals, their algal symbionts and the microbes that live alongside them, and how that partnership forms, holds and breaks down under environmental stress.

Before moving to Hong Kong he spent twelve years at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. There he completed his PhD with Manuel Aranda and went on to lead molecular research in the Coral Symbiomics Lab as a research scientist. His training began in plant molecular biology, working on anthocyanin genes in turnips.

Google Scholar ORCID [email protected]

45.7°N 126.6°E Harbin 2004–2011
BSc Biotechnology and MSc, Northeast Forestry University. Plant molecular biology.
40.0°N 116.3°E Beijing 2012–2014
Research assistant, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University.
22.3°N 39.1°E Thuwal 2014–2026
PhD, postdoc and research scientist, Red Sea Research Center, KAUST.
22.4°N 114.2°E Hong Kong 2026–
Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, CUHK.

Service

Associate Editor, Frontiers in Marine Science (2026–)
Guest Editor, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2025–26)
Reviewer for 20+ journals, including Nature Communications, PNAS, eLife and Science Advances
Co-PI on three funded KAUST grants (2023–25), including a functional CRISPR screen in corals

Teaching & mentoring

BIOL4230 Global Change Biology, CUHK (2026–)
Co-instructor, Ecological Genomics, a PhD course at KAUST (2022–26)
Mentored 30+ trainees at KAUST: 9 PhD students, 10 master's students and 15 interns

Off the record

Trained on land plants; now works on ocean animals.
Lived in Saudi Arabia for twelve years; speaks no Arabic.
A marine scientist who doesn't dive.

Team

A team taking shape around four questions

Three researchers join between late 2026 and August 2027, each working on one of our four lines of research. Each tag links to that line on the Research page.