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.
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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.
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