HKU Coordinating Three New Theme-based Research Scheme Projects

Project Coordinator: Professor Dong-yan Jin, School of Biomedical Sciences
Approved funding: HK$42.278M

“Bringing an end to the COVID-19 pandemic requires more high-quality research focusing on critical issues in diagnosis, prevention and intervention,” Professor Jin said. He explained that in this project, the team will conduct multidisciplinary research to address key scientific questions surrounding the ecology, molecular virology and pathogenesis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They aim to gain new insights into the virus’s origin and evolution, define the mechanism of asymptomatic infection in bats and humans, unravel new mechanisms of the virus entry and replication, and identify novel host dependency and restriction factors. 
 

“Our work will also contribute to the development of new strategies, methods and leads for early and rapid diagnosis, immunisation with live attenuated and synthetic vaccines, as well as therapeutic treatment targeting either the virus or the host.”

Project Coordinator Professor Dong-yan Jin

The team is a group of world-leading clinicians and scientists specialised in coronavirus research. Among their discoveries that have had a local and global impact, their first report on human-to-human transmission and family clustering of COVID-19 provided the key scientific evidence for China’s decision to lock down Wuhan in its fight against the deadly disease. Professor Jin said that the funding from this scheme “provides another opportunity to demonstrate to the world the vibrancy and creative capability of our research… and helps to maintain and enhance our leadership position in this field, as well as to nurture next-generation leaders.”

Project Coordinator: Professor Leo Poon, School of Public Health
Approved funding: HK$68.834M
 

“This project investigates two major areas related to COVID-19,” Professor Poon said. “The first research area primarily focuses on SARS-CoV-2 variants found in humans. We will monitor for viral genetic changes and, more importantly, assess the potential public health risk (such as transmissibility, vaccine escape and disease severity) caused by these genetic changes. The second area focuses on assessing COVID-19 immune responses in the local population. Specifically, we will evaluate the potential use of COVID-19 vaccines to prevent infection at the individual and population levels.” 

“Findings of our work will form the scientific basis for policymaking and establishing new research direction. Ultimately, we hope our effort can help change our lives from ‘new normal’ back to ‘real normal’.”

Project Coordinator Professor Leo Poon

Project Coordinator: Dr Vincent Lui, Department of Surgery
Approved funding: HK$56.127M
 

Biliary atresia (BA) is a devastating inflammatory disease of the bile ducts affecting infants, and it is prevalent among Asians. If untreated, patients will die from liver fibrosis and failure. The outcome of the current treatment of Kasai surgery (re-establishing bile flow) is poor,  often leading to complications and the need for liver transplantation. “The root cause for the lack of progress in BA treatment lies in the poor knowledge of its underlying pathogenetic mechanisms,” Dr Lui said. “The substantial healthcare burden caused by the disease affects not only patients from infancy to old age but also their families, carers and society.” 

This project aims to “improve our understanding of the disease mechanisms using novel, beyond state-of-the-art organoid-based systems, dissect disease heterogeneity through genomics and transcriptomics, and pursue novel therapeutic leads with pre-clinical testing,” Dr Lui explained. The findings will inform clinicians on patient stratification and provide evidence for implementing clinical trials of novel therapies.

Project Coordinator Dr Vincent Lui