HKU Bulletin June 2004 (Vol. 5 No. 4)

6 7 RESEARCH Let the Sun Shine In ‘G reen’ electricity and a glass roof that provides shade have been injected into the design of a new primary school in Ma Wan, in a Department of Architecture-led project to test and promote solar-powered energy in Hong Kong. The school, Church of Christ in China Kei Wai Primary School, has been fitted with solar panels on its roof that are expected to generate nine per cent of its annual electricity needs and save 179 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year T . hree kinds of panels are being tested, a lightweight panel that also provides shade, a heavier panel and a panel that is integrated into the design of a glass roof. The glass roof panels do not entirely cover the glass, so light is let in. In addition, University researchers have devised a system to get the highest ‘yield’ of sunshine from the panels and meet the strict demands of CLP Power for integrating the solar- powered energy with CLP’s grid system. CLP needs to provide back-up power on cloudy days and in late autumn and early spring, when there is less direct sunlight. “People tend to think solar energy is a great deal simpler to provide than it really is,” Dr Josie Close, Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Architecture, who is leading the project, said. “It’s really just in this last year that we have been making major headway with CLP in terms of grid integration of renewable-generated energy. They have acknowledged that small green projects of community benefit will have cross- subsidy charges waived for providing back-up electricity. We’re only the second installation of this size to be grid-connected, after the Science Park.” Dr Close said they would collect data from the school project over the next year to analyse which solar technology works best in Hong Kong. Researchers are also helping to prepare teaching materials on solar power for the coming academic year. The project has been funded with an Innovation and Technology Fund grant of $5.8 million and a matching grant from the CLP Research Institute, which was set up in 1999 to explore renewable energies and support sustainable projects in the community. In addition, the Hong Kong Photovoltaic Consortium has been set up to promote solar energy. Photovoltaics generate electricity from the lightwaves in sunlight. A course on building appl icat ions for photovol taics is being of fered to the construction trade through HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education. Back Pain F or Kenneth Cheung the revelation that one-fifth of Hong Kong’s population carries a mutated gene responsible for back pain has taken an agonizing three years of research. So the news that the Genome Research Centre (GRC) will allow his Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology team to compress another three-year’s research into one week is sweet relief T . he GRC will allow, Cheung – an Associate Professor in the Department – and his colleagues Danny Chan, Jeff Jim, Keith Luk, Y.Q. Song, Kathryn Cheah to build on their pioneering work on the origin of one of man’s greatest enemies: back pain. Their prel iminary studies have shown that two mutated genes are believed responsible for a condi t ion t radi t ional ly associated wi th the degenerating effects of wear and B te u a t r. the mutated gene collagen IX – which the team believes maybe carried by as many as 20 per cent of the local population – can affect even younger generations. People carrying this gene are 2.4 t imes more l ikely to develop degenerat i ve disc dise T as h e e . second mutation is a v i tamin D receptor, which, although only three per cent of the local population are thought to carry, has a 4 times higher chance of disc degeneration. He said: “Up until now we have had to make do with a shoestring. Although we were grateful for the University Grants Committee’s (UGC’s) $1.5 million grant it has taken us three years to reach this stage. “Because genome research is so expensive you can only do so much with a limited budget. So that is why we took three years to get to this point. “With GRC we could have completed this work in one week. That gives you an idea of how powerful this Centre and its facilities are.” Cheung’s work now comes under the umbrella of a UGC Areas of Excellence $50 million grant, which is being used to underwrite a multi-disciplinary approach to solve problems of the skele L t e o d n. by Professor Kathryn Cheah, Professor : Chai r of Biochemistry, the 18-strong team of scientists and doctors will focus on the relation between genes and skeletal disorders. Cheung admits that the discovery of the two key genes in their part of the equation involved a good degree of guessing the ‘candidate gene’. He said: “This is relatively easy to do but the problem is that if you guess wrong you get nothing.” The other approach, however, is linkage analysis where you look at families with a number of members who look as if they have a genetic origin in their back condition. Cheung said: “The GRC will enable us to focus on linkage analysis and perhaps find an unknown or unpredictable gene. “With the Centre we will be able to use both approaches.”