PHOTO: LIAU CHUNG-REN/ZUMAPRESS/NEWSCOM1182 3 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6572 science.org SCIENCE
Hayward, will leave at the end of his cur-
rent contract in August 2022. Hayward, a
New Zealand native, did not respond to an
email seeking comment.
On 21 November, Gabriel Leung, HKU’s
highly respected dean of medicine, an-
nounced he will step down next sum-
mer as well, even though his contract
runs until July 2023. Since his appoint-
ment in 2013, Leung oversaw the fac-
ulty’s rise from 36th to 20th place in the
Times Higher Education’s “clinical and
health” rankings. A native Hong Konger,
he was also one of the architects of Hong
Kong’s “suppress and lift” strategy that
alternately toughened and relaxed re-
strictions on social activities to help keep
COVID-19 infections at a very low level.
Leung, 49, will become executive director
for charities and community of the Hong
Kong Jockey Club, overseeing the club’s
Charities Trust, one of the world’s biggest
philanthropic organizations. (Leung has a
long-standing interest in social issues and
is also a governor of the United Kingdom’s
Wellcome Trust, the world’s largest phil-
anthropic funder of medical research.) In-
stead of answering questions from Science,
Leung shared the email he sent to HKU
staff and students announcing his depar-
ture “with a heavy heart.” He explained he
would dedicate “the next stage of my work
life addressing the ultimate challenge of
the ‘unethical epidemic of inequalities.’”
Asked to respond to rumors that deans
were told in advance their contracts would
not be renewed, an HKU spokesperson
wrote in an email to Science that “Deans
vacate their posts upon contract comple-
tion” but can continue as members of the
faculty. The spokesperson added: “It is our
standard practice to conduct international
searches for faculty deans.”
So far, few Westerners have been ap-
pointed to newly opened positions, how-
ever. Instead, they are attracting interest
from mainland-born Chinese scholars,
some currently in the United States where
they feel increasingly unwelcome due to
the U.S. Department of Justice’s China
Initiative. Although both HKUST and City
University have said they will search in-
ternationally for new presidents as well,
critics believe candidates will have to be
acceptable to the Chinese government—
and that their political views will permeate
the universities they will lead.
The changing political winds are in-
fluencing career decisions by junior aca-
demics as well, Holz and others say. Holz,
who has been outspoken about threats to
academic freedom in Hong Kong, says he
has felt “no pressure because of what I’ve
written. There’s been no interfering in my
teaching or research.” But he acknowledges
that not all of his colleagues have been so
fortunate. Two HKUST scholars left Hong
Kong abruptly earlier this year after pro-
Beijing newspapers attacked them for com-
ments made at conferences, he says. (The
two could not be reached for confirmation.)
These incidents leave “an underlying anger
and tenseness in people,” Holz says.
As another Hong Kong academic puts it,
“Everybody is wondering what the future
holds for the city and the universities.” jA student passes a “Lennon wall” filled with protest messages—including one that says “Vow to express freedom”—
at the University of Hong Kong in the summer of 2020. The university has since removed all protest signs.
F
or patients whose depression resists
treatment with drugs and electro-
convulsive therapy, surgically im-
planted wires that stimulate the
brain might bring relief. But in recent
years, two randomized, controlled tri-
als of this approach, known as deep brain
stimulation (DBS), were halted after un-
derwhelming results in interim analyses.
“It was like the air was let out of the room,”
Sameer Sheth, a neurosurgeon at Baylor
College of Medicine, says of those results.
“It was a big let-down.”
Now, researchers are testing more so-
phisticated, personalized DBS techniques
they hope will yield stronger results. The
tests to date have involved just one or a
few patients, far from proof of effective-
ness. But researchers hope they’ll inform
larger studies that finally cement the ef-
fectiveness of DBS in depression. “With
all these irons in the fire ... we will hope-
fully build up enough understanding and
evidence,” says Sheth, an author of a case
study published last week.
DBS is already approved in the United
States to treat epilepsy, obsessive compul-
sive disorder, and movement disorders
such as Parkinson’s disease. The hope is
that it could also shift patterns of abnor-
mal activity in neural circuits that may
drive depression symptoms. Early studies
without control groups yielded promising
results, but two randomized, controlled tri-
als, sponsored by the medical device com-
panies Medtronic and St. Jude Medical,
Inc. (later acquired by Abbott Laborato-
ries) did not show significant benefits after
several months of DBS, teams reported in
2015 and 2017.
Long-term follow-up of participants has
revived some optimism. For example, many
people in the 30-participant Medtronic trialDeep brain
stimulation
takes new aim
at depression
Case studies spotlight
personalized approaches
to tweaking brain circuits
NEUROSCIENCEBy Kelly ServickNEWS | IN DEPTH