Issue 03 March 2021
photo was taken prior to the pandemic
• HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship Talk Series • E-learning Resources at the Faculty • Body Donation Day • Researchers uncover Clofazimine to broadly inhibit coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2
www.sbms.hku.hk
Associate Director’s Message
This third newsletter highlights achievements across Teaching & Learning, Research & Innovation and Knowledge Exchange & Global within the SBMS. The COVID situation continues as a challenge but it is great to see all the efforts to persevere and continue to innovate in all of these areas. From the T&L perspective, I’d like to encourage staff to engage E-Learning Instructor Lynn Lin to help in the development and delivery of e-learning materials. There is no doubt that e-learning will continue as a fast-changing area with benefits for student learning and for all of us as a community into the future. The epidemic situation is catalysing that transition as a rich learning experience for staff and students alike. I’d also like to warmly welcome Dr Rubén Hervas Millan to the community as a new member of our academic staff. Wishing everyone a rewarding and productive couple months ahead as we wrap up the academic year. Professor Julian Tanner Associate Director (Teaching & Learning) School of Biomedical Sciences
Teaching & Learning Feature Story
Ms Wong Wing Yan, Barbara Innovation and Technology Scholarship 2020 awardee
Programme
Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, Year 2
Innovation and Technology Scholarship 2020 Award
It is my great honor to be the youngest awardee for the Innovation and Technology Scholarship 2020 sponsored by HSBC. I am very grateful to be supported by this scholarship to join a research project at The University of Oxford, which focuses on improving the risk prediction of a heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This will definitely be a great opportunity to widen my horizon and allow me to pursuit for continuous excellence in research and development. In this coming summer, I will participate in a research project at Nanyang Technological University to work on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. I am really excited for this outbound research activity and being able to experience the local culture in Singapore!
Apart from pursuing my passion for innovation and technology, I engaged in various community services, such as the HSBC SMART Community Hackathon, and a self-initiated service project workshop to give back to the community. Inside the University, I am a representative for our Faculty as a HKUMed student ambassador! These service projects allowed me to promote happiness in the community, and whenever I saw those exciting and enthusiastic faces during the service workshop, I felt I was able to promote the spirit of “letting love fill life”. My commitment to these services had also made me feel more connected to my surrounding community, and these experiences had helped me to develop better communication and leadership skills, which is essential to be a good leader in the future.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude not only to the scholarship team, but also to all the professors and lecturers who supported me along my journey. Surely, I will continue to work hard to bring more positive changes and pursue my passion for innovation and technology for many years to come.
Feature Story Research & Innovation
The School of Biomedical Sciences has received encouraging results in the latest Research Grants Council (RGC) 2020/21 research funding schemes. In particular, the School has been funded one Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) COVID-19 and Novel Infectious Disease Exercise and one Research Impact Fund (RIF). RIF 2020/21 Project Title: Development and applications of a driver-dependent tumor organoid biobank for translational liver cancer research Project Coordinator: Dr. Stephanie Ma CRF COVID-19 and Novel Infectious Disease 2020/21 Project Title: Mechanism of inflammasome activation by SARS-CoV-2 Project Coordinator: Prof. Dong-Yan Jin
Proinflammatory cytokine storm is the culprit in pathogenesis of severe COVID-19. Activation of inflammasome is the root cause for the induction of cytokine storm. In this group research project, we will shed mechanistic light on inflammasome activation by SARS-CoV-2. We will perform functional screens to search for SARS-CoV-2-encoded modulators of inflammasome activation. This will be followed by mechanistic studies on selected SARS-CoV-2-encoded inflammasome activators and detailed comparative analysis of inflammasome activation by SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses in human and bat cells. Finally, to pave the avenue for further translational research, we will experimentally treat COVID-19 with inflammasome inhibitors in a hamster model. Our work will substantially advance the field by deriving new knowledge. Our findings will also have important implications in prevention and intervention of COVID-19. Particularly, identification and characterization of SARS-CoV-2-encoded inflammasome activators will impact future practice of medicine by revealing new strategies and agents for vaccine and antiviral development.
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogenous disease. To date, treatment for HCC has still followed a traditional “one-size-fits-all” strategy where stratification of patients is only based on disease stage; and therapy are often inefficient or ineffective for many individuals. In an era of precision medicine, monitoring clinically relevant driver-dependent genetic alterations is important for stratifying patients for targeted therapies. In this funded Research Impact Fund project, the team aims to establish and characterize a bio-bank of diverse driver-dependent HCC and adjacent non-tumor liver mouse organoids that is representative of the common mutations and copy number alterations documented in HCC, by integrating organoid culture and HCC mouse models induced by hydrodynamic tail vein delivery of oncogenic plasmids. These organoids are unique as they will retain primarily growth of epithelial cells only and thus will provide a clean system to study driver-dependent genomic alterations, free from contaminating stromal cells. These organoids are also easily scalable for high-throughput drug screening and can be utilized for genetic manipulation and tumor microenvironment co-culture studies. Ultimately, we wish to commercialize our unique driver-dependent HCC tumor organoids as pre-clinical drug screening services and to promote R&D development of promising lead candidates to drug products through partnership with pharmaceutical industries. We believe this new platform will define new opportunities for innovative treatments of HCC. The project team includes scientists from HKU, CUHK and PolyU, including Dr. Alan Wong and Dr. Jason Wong of our School of Biomedical Sciences.
Feature Story
Knowledge Exchange & Global
HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship Talk Series
by HK Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and HKU Technology Transfer Office. The inaugural talk by Professor Julian Tanner and Dr. Andrew Kinghorn of AlhenaBio Limited was successfully held on January 13, 2021. The talk was well-attended with around 150 participants. AlehnaBio Limited is a precision digital diagnostics and healthtech company. The company develops aptamers and integrates them into platforms to produce next-generation digital diagnostics solutions. At the talk, Prof Tanner and Dr. Kinghorn shared their story on building a new startup with the support of local pre-incubation programs and grants. The second talk was held on March 24, 2021. Professor Stephen Tsui of CUHK, Founder of BioMed Technology Holdings Limited and Wellmind BioMed Technology Holdings Limited , shared with us his success and struggle with establishing biomedical companies in HK. The next HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship
The HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship Talk Series is a new initiative by the School of Biomedical Sciences’ Knowledge Exchange and Global team with an aim to stimulate academic’s interest in translating their basic innovations to applications through inviting academics, entrepreneurs and investors to share their experience with research & development as well as startups. The talk series is kindly supported Prof. Stephen Tsui, CUHK Dr. Renchen Liu, RITS
talk will be held on April 7, 2021 on zoom. We are delighted to have Dr. Renchen Liu of Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen to discuss with us collaborative opportunities with HK talents for joint Research & Development or Industrialization.
Full story
E-learning Resources at the Faculty School Highlights
Ms Lin Hanyuning, E-learning Instructor
E-learning brings plenty of opportunities and challenges. Ms Lynn H. Lin has joined the Faculty as a new e-learning instructor. One of her roles is supporting e-learning teaching in the BBiomedSc programme. Lynn holds bachelor degree in psychology and master degree in IT in education, and she has been involved in several e-learning projects, e.g. flipped classroom design, student stress in online learning environment, and design, development and use of a 3D immersive learning environment - Digital Exhibition Space (DES) in a large-size online class, amongst which DES has won the 2020 HKU Teaching Innovation Team award. Her research and practice interest focuses on educational technology, student socialization, emotions and learning motivation in
the online context. She has knowledge and experiences in digital instructional design and delivery, and is here to support the achievement of any innovative ideas, optimizing use of Moodle and its add-ons, applying different Ed-Tech tools in learning activities based on pedagogical needs, or developing AR/VR facilitated learning across non-MBBS programs. Other examples include, but not limited to, the following: High quality e-learning video
• • • • Demonstration on new technology Mentimeter (facilitate real-time student interaction in class) ConceptBoard (monitor student progress on assignment and exhibit learning outcomes) Quizizz (assign synchronous and asynchronous gamified quiz) MindMeister (mind map) • • • Moodle organize and manage Moodle course page use H5P to develop adaptive and interactive learning materials (based on video / PPT) set up different learning activities (e.g. quiz, discussion forum, survey, peer evaluation workshop etc.)
develop storyboard based on learning materials (e.g. PPT) to support filming arrange e-learning video production
• • • • •
Zoom class translate traditional learning activities to fit in online context plan and design interactive online learning activities with the support of educational technology moderate chat forum Gamified learning enable fun elements like badges, leaderboard, progress bar, storytelling into learning process and assessment
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HKUMed has a lot of useful resources for instructors to develop technology-enhanced medical teaching, and Lynn serves as a bridge to match the right resource based on instructor needs and assists instructors in developing interactive and engaging learning experiences for students. As online medical education is a long-term goal, particularly when e-learning becomes a new normal under the effect of COVID-19. Please utilize the available resources within Faculty, and get in contact with Lynn directly via lynnelin@hku.hk or +852 3917 9721 for further refining of your online courses.
The 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Grand Prize in Innovation) Awards Congratulations
Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award for Youths Dr. Gao Bo Project title: Genetic and mechanistic studies of
congenital skeletal disorders (Award Date: 15 Mar 2021)
Mr Yeung Lo & Mr Lin Wang
In the Media School Highlights
Mar 2, 2021 - Dr. Chengmin Qian’s team reveals a novel epigenetic mechanism in rRNA transcriptional regulation and raises new possibility of targeted therapy for cancer treatment
Mar 16, 2021 - HKUMed researchers uncover Clofazimine to broadly inhibit coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2
Jan 23 & 24, 2021 - Prof. Dong-Yan Jin on COVID-19 and vaccines in an interview on TVB
Feb 21, 2021 - Prof. Danny Chan's study on intervertebral discs featured on MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences - Biomedical Picture of the Day (BPoD)
Dec 23, 2020 - Dr. Alan Wong talks about CRISPR gene editing in an interview on Sing Tao Daily
Dec 28, 2020 - Dr. Lai Kwok On's study on TBC1D24 in the maintenance of neuronal connections in the brain featured in Croucher Science Week's Blog
Oct 14, 2020 - Our female embalmers interviewed by Topick
Recap of Events School Highlights HKU Biomedical Sciences Society Hiking Day
Date: Feb 28, 2021 Venue: Mui Wo to Pui O
Biomedical Sciences Society held a hiking day from Mui Wo to Pui O on Feb 28 for its members. Some of our teaching staff and graduates joined as well. The hike was around 8km in total with peak height 275m, which deemed an average hike. Fortunately, weather was fine and it was a pleasant day of sharing and workout.
Body Donation Day Dissecting Lab Open Day coming in June
The 3rd of March is the HKU Body Donation Day. In Chinese, the pronunciation of this date resembles that of an old adage “san-san-bu-jin” which highlights the continuous and everlasting quality of life after life. Its aim is to promote the spirit of overcoming the presumed limitations of death, and to encourage the passing on of knowledge. Through the selfless donations made by the Great Body Teachers, our students and scientists in the healthcare professions learn about the complex structure of the
human body, its functions and diseases. This kind of learning cannot be replaced by anatomical illustrations, computer software or models. Same as previous year, we are eager to meet participants in person to introduce our programme objective, as well as how our students learn from our Great Body Teachers through dissecting lab visits and VR/AR demonstration. Hence, we plan to postpone our annual Body Donation Day to the end of June when the COVID-19 situation permits resumption of more face to face activities on campus. Please stay with us on Facebook for the latest announcement.
HKU Biomedical Sciences Society Career Talk (Zoom) Mar 5, 2021, 6:30pm – 8pm Research Chalk Talk by Dr. Clive Chung, School of Biomedical Sciences Feb 24, 2021, 2pm – 3pm Teaching Chalk Talk by Dr. Nai Sum Wong, School of Biomedical Sciences Mar 3, 2021, 1pm – 2pm Research Chalk Talk by Prof. David Li, Department of Chemistry, HKU Mar 24, 2021, 1pm – 2pm HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship Talk Series by Prof. Stephen Tsui, School of Biomedical Sciences, CUHK Mar 24, 2021, 4pm – 5:30pm
Programme RPG Seminar Series Jan 8, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Jan 15, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Jan 22, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Feb 26, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Mar 5, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Mar 12, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Mar 19, 2021, 5pm – 6pm RAP/PDF Seminar Series Jan 6, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Jan 27, 2021, 5pm – 6pm Mar 10, 2021, 5pm – 6pm
News & Events
Congratulations External Grant
Project Title: Project Coordinator: Amount Awarded: Award Date: Mechanism of inflammasome activation by SARS-CoV-2 Prof. Dong-Yan Jin HK$8,431,247 Jan 5, 2021 Donation from “Chi Lin Kok Ng Buddhist Hall Limited” Cell replacement therapy against neurodegenerative disease Prof. Ying Shing Chan Collaborative Research Fund COVID-19 and Novel Infectious Disease 2020/21
Innovation and Technology Fund – Innovation and Technology Support Program (ITSP)
Project Title:
Development and pre-clinical evaluation of a humanized ANXA3 neutralizing monoclonal antibody for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment Dr. Stephanie Ma
Project Coordinator: Award Amount: Award Date:
HK$1,221,875 Mar 15, 2021
Contract Research Project Title: Project Coordinator: Amount Awarded: Award Date: Project Title: Project Coordinator: Award Amount: Award Date:
Research Impact Fund 2020/21 Project Title:
HK$500,000 Feb 15, 2021
Development and applications of a driver-dependent tumor organoid biobank for translational liver cancer research Dr. Stephanie Ma HK$4,100,000 (plus partner universities matching an additional $30%) Jan 13, 2021
Project Coordinator: Amount Awarded: Award Date:
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau RNA laboratory ( 粤港 RNA医学联合实验室 ) Prof. Jiandong Huang RMB1,000,000 Jan 8, 2021
Publications Highlights
1. Yuan S, Yin X, Meng X, Chan JF, Ye ZW, Riva L, Pache L, Chan CC, Lai PM, Chan CC, Poon VK, Lee AC, Matsunaga N, Pu Y, Yuen CK, Cao J, Liang R, Tang K, Sheng L, Du Y, Xu W , Lau CY , Sit KY, Au WK, Wang R, Zhang YY, Tang YD, Clausen TM, Pihl J, Oh J, Sze KH, Zhang AJ, Chu H, Kok KH, Wang D, Cai XH, Esko JD, Hung IF, Li RA, Chen H, Sun H, Jin DY , Sun R# , Chanda SK#, Yuen KY#. Clofazimine broadly inhibits coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2. Nature 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03431-4. Published 16 Mar 2021. #co-corresponding authors 2. Tan DS , Chen Y, Gao Y , Bednarz A , Wei Y, Malik V, Ho DH , Weng M , Ho SY , Srivastava Y, Velychko S, Yang X, Fan L, Kim J, Graumann J, Stormo GD, Braun T, Yan J, Schöler HR, Jauch R . Directed evolution of an enhanced POU reprogramming factor for cell fate engineering. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2021, msab075. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msab075. Published 15 Mar 2021. 3. Hossain MF, Wang N, Chen R , Li S , Roy J , Uddin MG, Li Z, Lim LW# , Song YQ# . Exploring the multifunctional role of melatonin in regulating autophagy and sleep to mitigate Alzheimer's disease neuropathology. Ageing Research Reviews 2021, 67:101304. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2021.101304. Published 18 Feb 2021. #co-corresponding authors 4. Du Y , Yan Y , Xie S , Huang H, Wang X, Ng RK, Zhou MM, Qian C . Structural mechanism of bivalent histone H3K4me3K9me3 recognition by the Spindlin1/C11orf84 complex in rRNA transcription activation. Nature Communications 2021, 12(1):949. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21236-x. Published 11 Feb 2021. 5. Ye ZW, Yuan S, Chan JF, Zhang AJ, Yu CY , Ong CP , Yang D, Chan CC, Tang K, Cao J, Poon VK, Chan CC, Cai JP, Chu H, Yuen KY, Jin DY . Beneficial effect of combinational methylprednisolone and remdesivir in hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Emerging Microbes & Infections 2021, 1-38. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2021.1885998. Published 4 Feb 2021. 6. Huang Y , Jiang H, Zheng Q , Fok AH , Li X , Lau CG, Lai CS . Environmental enrichment or selective activation of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons ameliorates synaptic and behavioral deficits in animal models with schizophrenia-like behaviors during adolescence. Molecular Psychiatry 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-01005-w. Published 20 Jan 2021. 7. Dong C , An L , Yu CH# , Huen MS# . A DYRK1B-dependent pathway suppresses rDNA transcription in response to DNA damage. Nucleic Acids Research 2021, gkaa1290. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa1290. Published 19 Jan 2021. #co-corresponding authors 8. Ng KY , Shea QT, Wong TL , Luk ST , Tong M , Lo CM, Man K, Yun JP, Guan XY, Lee TK, Zheng YP, Ma S . Chemotherapy ‐ enriched THBS2 ‐ deficient cancer stem cells drive hepatocarcinogenesis through matrix softness induced histone H3 modifications. Advanced Science 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202002483. Published 4 Jan 2021. 9. Zhu Y , Lam AKY, Shum DK , Cui D , Zhang J , Yan DD , Li B, Xu WW, Lee NP, Chan KT, Law S, Tsao SW , Cheung AL . Significance of serglycin and its binding partners in autocrine promotion of metastasis in esophageal cancer. Theranostics 2021, 2722-2741. doi: 10.7150/thno.49547. Published 1 Jan 2021. 10. Chen XK , Yi ZN, Wong GT, Hasan KM, Kwan JS#, Ma AC#, Chang RC# . Is exercise a senolytic medicine? A systematic review. Aging Cell 2021, e13294. doi: 10.1111/acel.13294. Published Jan 2021. #co-corresponding authors 11. Gao X#, Ruan D , Liu P# . Reprogramming porcine fibroblast to EPSCs. Methods in Molecular Biology 2021, 2239:199-211. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1084-8_13. Published 2021. #co-corresponding authors 12. Wan YK , Choi GC , Wong AS . High-throughput protein engineering by massively parallel combinatorial mutagenesis. Methods in Molecular Biology 2021, 2199:3-12. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_1. Published 2021. 13. Shiu SC , Sakai Y, Tanner JA# , Heddle JG#. FRET-mediated observation of protein-triggered conformational changes in DNA nanostructures. Methods in Molecular Biology 2021, 2208:69-80. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0928-6_5. Published 2021. #co-corresponding authors
School Highlights New Faces
In my postdoctoral work, developed in Kausik Si’s laboratory at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, I have implemented the structural view in the study of functional amyloids extracted from their native environment. Specifically, I have characterized the function and structure of the aggregated state, isolated from the Drosophila brain, of the synaptic protein synthesis regulator CPEB, which across animal species plays a causal role in transforming a short-term memory to a long-lived one. Now I am poised to use this knowledge to elucidate the structure and function of biologically active amyloids isolated from their physiological environment, implicated in memory consolidation in humans and animal development. I hope to accomplish this ambitious goal at the HKU. Dr. Hervas Millan, Rubén BSc (Autonomous U of Madrid), MSc (U of Zaragoza), PhD (cum laude, CSIC-Cajal Institute) (will join our school as Assistant Professor on 12 April 2021)
Upcoming Events
News & Events
HKU Biomed Entrepreneurship Talk Series
The 2021 Hong Kong Inter-University Postgraduate Symposium in Biochemical Sciences
Apr 7, 2021
Prof. Renchen Liu | Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen (RITS) Dr. Kelsey Zhong | ImmunoDiagnostics Limited
Date: Jun 12, 2021 Time: 9am – 6pm
May 12, 2021
Event Details
Event Details
Date: Mar 31, 2021 Time: 5pm – 6pm RAP/PDF Seminar Series
Zoom Seminar
Date: Apr 9, 2021 Time: 4pm – 5pm
Teaching Chalk Talk by Dr. Tomasz Cecot, School of Biomedical Sciences
Event Details
Date: Mar 31, 2021 Time: 1pm – 2pm
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