HKU Bulletin October 2003 (Vol. 5 No. 1)

A tool to enable computers in major organi zat ions and companies to ‘talk’ to each other more efficiently is being developed by researchers in the Centre for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development. Currently, files need to be formatted individually when they are sent from one system to another and the information must be filtered and re-entered by the recipient for material that they need. While this is not much of a problem for exchanges between individuals, it is a hugely time-wasting task for large organizations such as governments and businesses in which many different departments or operators are sharing information. The goal is to enable informat ion to be entered automat ical ly into each operator‘s system through an ‘ informat ion interoperabi l i ty platform’. Dr David Cheung of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems is leading the project, which received $13.99 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund in April and another $5.3 million from private sponsors. The project involves 10 additional collaborators from the private sector. “There is nothing like this in existence at the moment because interoperability is pretty difficult. We want to be able to link up every party in a chain so it is easier for information to flow through multiple receivers in a chain,” he said. “The key is to adopt open standards on information exchange. This technology will be very valuable in logistic and e-government applications.” The project is expected to be completed in 2006. Project: A Business Process and Information Interoperability Platform Based on Open Standards David Cheung 7 RESEARCH A kit to identify people at risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and atherosclerotic diseases is being developed in a project led by Professor Karen Lam of the Department of Medicine, who has also set her sights on generating a new drug treatment for patients. The kit will seek to measure levels of adiponectin in the blood. Low levels of adiponectin are linked to metabolic disorders and coronary heart disease. Obese people tend to have lower adiponectin, but this is not always the case. Hence the need to identify those who are at risk. Professor Lam said they aimed to mass-produce the kit and the income would be used to help fund the second part of the project – generating a drug that increases levels of adiponectin in patients. Research on animals has found that this reduces the threats of diabetes and atherosclerosis. Researchers in her depar tment wi l l col laborate wi th colleagues in Taiwan to screen thousands of drugs and chemicals to see if they have any application as a treatment. They will also work with researchers in Shanghai and Hong Kong to investigate traditional Chinese medicines for a treatment. The project has received $2.28 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund. The kit is expected to be ready within six months, while the development of a treatment is expected to take about two-and-a-half years. Project: Adiponectin as a Novel Diagnostic Marker and Therapeutic Target for the Treatment of Diabetes, Steatohepatitis and Other Metabolic Disorders New Kit Targets Those at Risk ‘Talking’ Computers Ease the Flow of Information Karen Lam 6