Issue 02 December 2020
www.sbms.hku.hk
Associate Director’s Message “It is my pleasure to present the second edition of our regular HKUMed School of Biomedical Sciences’ Newsletter. It is remarkable to see how sta and students adapt incredibly well despite the continuous challenges COVID-19 has brought us this year. We are proud to highlight their successes in scholarships, awards, grants, donations and publications in this issue. Looking ahead into 2021, we welcome two new Faculty members who will soon join us in the School and are excited to present various Knowledge Exchange initiatives including the launch of our new ‘HKU Biomed X HKSTP talk series’ in which academics/entrepreneurs will share their valuable experience on startups at Hong Kong Science Park.”
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Dr. Stephanie Ma Associate Director (Knowledge Exchange & Global) School of Biomedical Sciences
Asra Sainju
Programme
Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, Year 1
The Ethnic Minority Women & Girls' Scholarship (2020-2021) Award
Congratulations to Miss Asra Sainju, our BBMS Year-1 student, on receiving the Zubin Foundation’s Ethnic Minority Women & Girls’ Scholarship. Asra is one of the twelve recipients of the award this year.
“As a recipient of The Ethnic Minority Women & Girls' Scholarship, I am incredibly grateful to The Zubin Foundation for the opportunity to take part in enriching the community around me while being able to nance my studies. It is an honor to be awarded the scholarship and I am appreciative towards my family, friends, and the ethnic minority community — who have endlessly supported and guided me throughout my academic journey and more. Inspired by The Zubin Foundation and the people around me, I hope to continue contributing back to the community and strive to explore my academic capacity in my learning journey.
was a fruitful experience that allowed me to develop new perspectives on our society. I was able to gain insight not only about the issues that ethnic minorities in Hong Kong face but also how to overcome barriers, as the youth, to aid those in need. Throughout this process, I became more sensitive to the nuances of the impacts of social change and how simple acts of volunteering contributes to bigger notions and promotes inclusivity. The work that The Zubin Foundation does is undeniably essential, and I hope to integrate these values into my life. I wish for Hong Kong to be an all-inclusive hub empowering each individual to reach their full potential.
Personally, I hope to explore the potentials of sustainable biomedical technology and inclusive healthcare for all people. Looking forward to the future, I am keen to work on myself and learn from my peers and mentors. Thus, I hope that I will be able to create a supportive environment while taking part in volunteering services alongside my academic endeavors.”
Details
Although the application process was daunting as I was doubtful of myself, it
The CRISPR technology has accelerated research via allowing scientists to "edit" the genomes in a fast and precise manner, generating mutants at an unprecedented speed and scale. Multiplexed CRISPR editing, which generates a combination of knockouts, has opened up the opportunity to probe the complexity in the biological system. “In our recent study published in Cell Reports, we used three-way CRISPR gene editing (CombiGEM-CRISPR v.2.0 toolkits) followed by High-throughput Next Generation Sequencing to screen for therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer. Using the CRISPR-based method HKUMed researchers create a screening platform to discover new combination therapies for ovarian cancer and Parkinson’s disease
Dr. Alan Wong, Assistant Professor (middle); and his team, Ms. Becky Chan (1st left), Dr. Nick Zhou (2nd left), Ms. Yukki Wan (2nd right), and Ms. Cindy Tong (1st right).
Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) nuclease. After systemati- cally characterizing 948 mutation combinations, we identi ed Opti-SpCas9, which exhibits enhanced editing speci city with wide-type comparable potency and broad targeting range. The results are published in Nature Methods.”
to generate multi-knockouts and NGS to survey the "edits" via synthetic barcodes, we can systematically screen through a vast amount of gene combinations and identify the top-performing drug targets. Based on the results of the multi-knockouts screen on ovarian cancer cell lines, we further formulated a cocktail of three drugs suppressing ovarian cancer cell growth e ectively in mouse
Full Article
“Screening en-masse enabled by our combinatorial platforms is a powerful tool to address complex biological questions including gene-gene interactions and mutational epistasis. It is also shown to be promising in fast-tracked drug discovery.”
models. Similarly, we performed a dual CRISPR gene-knock- out screen and identi ed e ective drug combinations to confer protection against Parkinson’s disease (PD)-associated toxicity. Leveraging the mass production of synthetic barcoded protein variants and NGS technology, we built an e ective screening platform (CombiSEAL) to optimize the
In the near future, Dr. Wong and his team are eager to up-scale their combinatorial screening approaches, and apply their methods investigating more complex systems such as gene regulatory networks.
The 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
viral targets, such as SARS-CoV-2. Being given the opportunity to present this device at this year’s competition was a fantastic way to get invaluable insight from industry experts. We were able to discuss with them various new approaches, more e ective designs and entrepreneurial experiences that have greatly helped develop our device even further. While this year’s competition was di erent from previous years due to the pandemic, we believe it was still a very enriching event that is hard to get in a purely academic setting. This entire experience has given our team a road map on how we can translate our research into a useful tool." - Yeung Lo Each year, the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association selects the most outstanding projects to represent Hong Kong, exposing talented Hong Kong students to cutting-edge innovative and entrepreneurship ideas and inspiring them with academic exchange among the brightest students nationwide.
Congratulations to Yeung Lo and Lin Wang, PhD candidates of the School of Biomedical Sciences, on winning the 1st prize of the 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition under the Innovation – Life Sciences category with their project “Highly sensitive, adaptable synthetic antibody based biosensor for infectious diseases”. "Infectious diseases such as malaria and the current COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of rapid, accurate diagnostic devices. So our team hoped to tackle this need and make a di erence with our project submission to this year’s competition. With tremendous inspiration and support from our supervisor, colleagues and laboratory, we were able to develop a novel DNA-based electrochemical biosensing platform that allowed for the instantaneous detection of viral proteins in patient blood. By using this DNA format, we are hopeful to quickly adapt our platform into sensing many other
Mr Lin Wang (left) and Mr Yeung Lo (right)
September 2020 Launch of New Social Media Accounts
Our School’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram are now up! Don’t forget to like and follow the pages for regular updates of our School’s happenings.
HKUMedBiomedicalSciences
Recap of Events
27 October 2020 RPG Orientation
An orientation for new research postgraduate students in the School was held on 27 Oct 2020. In addition to experience sharing by current RPG students, a safety induction and lab tours were also conducted. A warm welcome to all our RPG students from the School!
16 November 2020 Meet and Chat with BBiomedSc Freshmen
In addition to the online orientation hosted at the beginning of the semester, a face to face gathering was arranged for BBMS freshmen to meet and chat with teachers and classmates on 16 Nov 2020. It was great to see everyone in person!
28 October - 18 November 2020 (Every Wednesday) HKU-SZU Seminar Series (via Zoom)
Together with Shenzhen University (SZU) Health Science Center, our school co-organized a series of four seminars held over Zoom every Wednesday from 28 Oct to 18 Nov 2020. Dr Chul Kwon, Dr Clive Chung, Dr Je Ti and Dr Heidi Ling of HKU and Dr Taewan Kim, Dr Xiangyu Liu, Prof. Xinhai Pei and Prof. Shaojun Xing of SZU were invited to share their latest research work so as to enhance interactions and collaborations between the two Universities.
Dr. Rio Sugimura PhD (Stowers Institute for Medical Research), MD, BS (Osaka U) (will join our school as Assistant Professor on 21 Dec 2020)
“Born in Japan, I have been scienti cally raised in the USA. After my scienti c journey through stem cell biology and hematology, I am more than elated to lead my lab at HKU. My research program focuses on fundamental questions in cancer immunotherapy and its application. Excited to serve the HKU community through collaborations on blood-generating organoids, iPS cells, and the generation of innate immune cells from patients. For anyone who wants to join my lab, feel free to contact me rios@hku.hk.”
Dr. Mu He PhD, BS (Cornell U) (will join our school as Assistant Professor on 1 Feb 2021)
“After spending almost two decades in New York and the SF Bay Area, I look forward to establishing my research group at HKU. By leveraging the power of stem cell biology and single-cell technologies, we aim to understand how the respiratory system develops, repairs, and regenerates. Through proactive collaboration between research and medicine, our ultimate goal is to translate basic biomedical discovery into e ective therapies for respiratory diseases.”
9 December 2020 Sassoon Road Alumni Workshop (via Zoom)
Prof. Chenli Liu 2011 PhD Graduate
Prof. Lin-yu Lu 2007 PhD Graduate
Dr. Bo Gao 2005 PhD Graduate
Dr. Justin Leung 2007 PhD Graduate
Dr. Elaine Wong 2006 PhD Graduate
Prof. Baohua Liu 2007 PhD Graduate
Dr. Kui Ming Chan 2008 PhD Graduate
The Workshop represents an exciting initiative for our school members to reunite with our alumni from across the globe, and to learn from them their paths to pursuing biomedical research. Apart from appreciating the science it will also be an excellent opportunity for us to build and strengthen the connections with which our students will surely nd helpful as they continue to explore careers in biomedical sciences.
Publications Highlights 1.
Lok-Yin Roy Wong , Zi-Wei Ye, Pak-Yin Lui , Xuyang Zheng , Shuofeng Yuan, Lin Zhu, Sin-Yee Fung , Kit-San Yuen , Kam-Leung Siu , Man-Lung Yeung, Zongwei Cai, Patrick Chiu-Yat Woo, Kwok-Yung Yuen, Chi-Ping Chan , Dong-Yan Jin (2020) Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ORF8b Accessory Protein Suppresses Type I IFN Expression by Impeding HSP70-Dependent Activation of IRF3 Kinase IKKε. Journal of immunology 2020, ji1901489. doi:10.4049/jimmunol. 1901489. Published 3 Aug 2020. 2. Bao-Zhong Zhang , Hin Chu, Shuo Han , Huiping Shuai, Jian Deng , Ye-Fan Hu , Hua-Rui Gong , Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Zijiao Zou, Thomas Yau, Wutian Wu , Ivan Fan-Ngai Hung, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Kwok-Yung Yuen, Jian-Dong Huang (2020) SARS-CoV-2 infects human neural progenitor cells and brain organoids. Cell research 2020, 1-4. doi: 10.1038/s41422-020-0390-x. Published 4 Aug 2020. 3. Sharafuddin Khairuddin , Luca Aquili, Boon Chin Heng, Tze Lok Cecil Hoo, Kah Hui Wong, Lee Wei Lim (2020) Dysregulation of the orexinergic system: A potential neuropeptide target in depression. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2020, 118:384-396. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.040. Published 5 Aug 2020. 4. Sai-Kam Li , Hoi-Ching Tang , Manton Man-Hon Leung , Wenjun Zou , Wing-Lim Chan , Yuan Zhou , Irene Oi-Lin Ng, Yick Pang Ching (2020) Centrosomal protein TAX1BP2 inhibits centrosome-microtubules aberrations induced by hepatitis B virus X oncoprotein. Cancer letters 2020, S0304-3835(20)30417-1. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.08.005. Published 19 Aug 2020. 5. Simon Chi-Chin Shiu , Yusuke Sakai, Julian A Tanner # , Jonathan G Heddle # (2020) FRET-Mediated Observation of Protein-Triggered Conformational Changes in DNA Nanostructures. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 2020. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0928-6_5. Published on 28 Aug 2020. # co-corresponding authors 6. Lei Han , Kenneth Lap-Kei Wu , Pui-Yi Kwan , Oscar Wing-Ho Chua , Daisy Kwok-Yan Shum , Ying-Shing Chan (2020) 5-HT 1A receptor-mediated attenuation of synaptic transmission in rat medial vestibular nucleus impacts on vestibular-related motor function. The Journal of Physiology 2020. doi: 10.1113/JP280610. Published 2 Oct 2020. 7. Shiny Shengzhen Guo , Ti any YK Au , Sarah Wynn , Attila Aszodi, Danny Chan , Reinhard Fässler, Kathryn SE Cheah (2020) β1 integrin regulates convergent extension in mouse notogenesis, ensures notochord integrity and the morphogenesis of vertebrae and intervertebral discs. Development (Cambridge, England) 2020. doi: 10.1242/dev.192724. Published 13 Oct 2020. 8. Sze P Tsui , Ho W Ip, Nicole Y Saw , Chunxiao Zhang, Arthur K Cheung, Nelson K Ng, Cheuk H Man, Stephen S Lam, Wing F Tang, Chi H Lin, Grace H Cheng, Chun H Au, Edmond S Ma, Tsun L Chan, Jason C So, Margaret H Ng, Kelvin C Cheng, Kit F Wong, Lai P Siu, Sze F Yip, Shek Y Lin, June S Lau, Tsan H Luk, Harold K Lee, Chi K Lau, Bonnie Kho, Joycelyn P Sim, Yok L Kwong, Suet Y Leung, Asif Javed # , Anskar Y Leung # (2020) Rede ning prognostication of de novo cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia in young adults. Blood Cancer Journal 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41408-020-00373-4. Published 19 Oct 2020. # co-corresponding authors 9. Ti any YK Au , To-Kam Lam, Yan Peng, Sarah L Wynn , Kenneth M C Cheung, Kathryn SE Cheah # , Victor Y L Leung # . (2020) Transformation of resident notochord-descendent nucleus pulposus cells in mouse injury-induced brotic intervertebral discs. Aging Cell, e13254. doi: 10.1111/acel.13254. Published 21 Oct 2020. # co-corresponding authors 10. Krit Lee , Hei Ming Lai , Maja Hoejvang Soerensen , Edward Sai-Kam Hui, Victor Wan-San Ma, William Chi-Shing Cho, Yuen-Shan Ho, Raymond Chuen-Chung Chang (2020) Optimized tissue clearing minimizes distortion and destruction during tissue delipidation. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. doi: 10.1111/nan.12673. Published 26 Oct 2020. 11. S Chul Kwon , Harim Jang, Siyuan Shen, S Chan Baek, Kijun Kim, Jihye Yang, Jeesoo Kim, Jong-Seo Kim, Suman Wang, Yunyu Shi, Fudong Li, V Narry Kim (2020) ERH facilitates microRNA maturation through the interaction with the N-terminus of DGCR8. Nucleic Acids Res. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa827. Published 4 Nov 2020. 12. Noélia Che , Kai-Yu Ng , Tin-Lok Wong , Man Tong , Phillis WF Kau , Lok-Hei Chan , Terence K Lee, Michael SY Huen , Jing-Ping Yun, Stephanie Ma (2020) PRMT6 de ciency induces autophagy in hostile microenvironments of hepatocellular carcinoma tumors by regulating BAG5-associated HSC70 stability. Cancer Lett. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.11.002. Published 11 Nov 2020.
Research Grants
Funding/Grant Body
Grant Holder
Amount
NSFC 2020 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) NSFC 2020 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) Guangdong Government Innovation & Technology Commission (ITC) - Public Sector Trial Scheme for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hong Kong
Dr. L.W.T. Cheung Dr. A.S.L. Wong Prof. J.D. Huang
RMB1,200,000 RMB1,200,000 RMB2,000,000 HK$1,489,250
Prof. J.A. Tanner
NSFC 2020 General Program (awarded via HKU-SZU) NSFC 2020 Young Scientist Fund (awarded via HKU-SZU)
RMB570,000 RMB240,000
Dr. S.K.Y. Ma Dr. L. Zhou
Donations
Funding/Grant Body
Grant Holder Prof. J.D. Huang Dr. L.W. Lim Dr. A.S.L. Wong Prof. Z.J. Zhou
Amount
Globeways Holdings Limited Immumax Wellness Centre Limited Karolinska Instituet Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine Hemix Biotech Ltd Limited
HK$1,548,989.15 HK$813,998 HK$209,667.97 HK$500,000
Croucher Senior Research Fellowships 2021-2022 Prof. J.D. Huang, Chair Professor and L & T Charitable Foundation Professor in Biomedical Sciences, is awarded the 2021 Croucher Senior Research Fellowship. The value of each award includes a HK$2,000,000 research grant.
Sta
Conferment of Chair Professor Title Prof. J.D. Huang is conferred the Professor, Chair of Synthetic Biology on Novermber 2020. Teaching Innovation Award (Team) Dr. George Tipoe was awarded the 2019 Teaching Innovation Award. Team: Prof. Wallace Lau, Dr Julie Chen, Prof. Giberto Leung, Dr. George Tipoe and Dr. Gordon Wong Project: Re-imagining Medical Education: An Enrichment Year in the Core MBBS Curriculum
Students
The 25 th Research Postgraduate Symposium Oral Presentations :
Mr T.F. Liu (PI: Prof. G.S.W. Tsao), Miss H.C. Loong (PI: Dr. S.K.Y. Ma) Mr T.L.M. Wong (PI: Dr. S.K.Y. Ma) Poster Presentations :
Innovation and Technology Scholarship 2020
Ms W.Y. Wong (BBMS, Year 2)
Miss F. Hu (PI: Dr. M.C.H. Cheung), Miss S.N. Ng (PI: Dr. L.W.T. Cheung), Mr J.J. Loh (PI: Dr. S.K.Y. Ma), Miss Z.F. Zheng (PI: Dr. M.C.H. Cheung), Miss R.R. Ng (PI: Prof. M.S.Y. Huen), Miss X.Y. Tan (PI: Prof. M.S.Y. Huen)
Outstanding Research Postgraduate Student 2018-2019
Ms C.M. Huang (MPhil graduate, PI: Prof. G.S.W. Tsao)
HKU Biomed x HKSTP talk series Jan 2021 Prof. Julian Tanner and Dr. Andrew Kinghorn | AlhenaBio Limited Mar 2021 Dr. Kelsey Zhong | ImmunoDiagnostics Limited May 2021 Prof. Stephen Kwok-Wing Tsui | BioMed Technology Holdings Limited
The HKU Biomed x HKSTP Talk Series is a new initiative from the School’s Knowledge Exchange and Global team. To kick-o the series, we have invited three faculty members / senior management team members of startups at HKSTP to share with us their journey in translating their research innovations into translational applications. More details to follow!
RAP/PDF Seminar Series Wednesday 5:00 pm on 6 & 27 Jan, 10 & 31 Mar, 14 & 28 Apr, 5 & 26 May and 6 & 23 Jun
Last but not least, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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