HKU Bulletin November 2005 (Vol. 7 No. 1)

17 Rebuilding the University F ormer Assistant Registrar, Adrian Rowe-Evans, offered a fascinating glimpse of the immediate post-war years at the University in a talk he delivered in May. His recollections provided a rare insight into a rapidly-changing period in the University’s history. Indeed the decisions made during Rowe-Evans’ tenure in the early 1950s laid the foundation of the University as it is today. Arriving in 1951, from the University of London where he had held an administrative post, Rowe-Evans realized immediately that he knew almost nothing about Hong Kong, China and Chinese people. “And had little idea about the problems and prospects of a university in Hong Kong.” He recalled that the future of the colony itself was problematic at a time when the Second World War and Japanese invasion had severely upset trade with the Mainland. “China had become an aggressive revolutionary country whose future course was imponderable,” he told an audience of HKU SPACE (HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education) alumni. “Even in 1951, Hong Kong was beginning to recognize that the present state of affairs could hardly continue beyond 1997, when the lease on the New Territories would expire. “In China, Communist ideals and practices were in conflict with traditional social and political values and it was not as yet absolutely clear that the new ideas would prevail. “The British hegemony in the Far East had also been fatally compromised during World War II. In fact none of the certainties on which The University of Hong Kong had been founded were any longer sure, some not even credible,” he recalled. It was into this environment of uncertainty and rapid reconstruction that Rowe-Evans found himself thrown. The Registrar Bernard (Bunny) Mellor had worked, for many years, with little administrative support and, upon Rowe-Evans’ arrival, ‘departed on much-needed and long-overdue leave.’ Both Mellor and the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Lindsay Ride, were essentially learning the administrative ropes, neither of them having held such positions previously. “We struggled on, all working terribly hard and slowly finding out what we needed to know,” explained Rowe-Evans. It had been decided that the University should aim at international status and the task of recruiting staff from all parts of the world began. A Professor of Architecture, Gordon Brown, was appointed to take charge of the campus building programme, which involved the extension of the Main Building and the construction of the Chemistry Building, which occupied the site of the current Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building. To establish a closer relationship with students and gain their feedback on the education provided, Rowe-Evans took daily Cantonese lessons, became warden of the non-residential hall and joined in sports and amateur theatrical activities. Today he recalls the idyllic nature of the University campus at that time as a ‘Paradise Lost’. It was ‘a beautiful and romantic place, with spacious colonial buildings, around a jewel-like central green, offering unobstructed views across the harbour.’ His experience in Hong Kong proved invaluable to his later employment in Africa and at the then new Warwick University. “I also found that Hong Kong was a dynamic place in which if you had a good idea you had an excellent chance of doing something about it.” Some may say that, in that sense, little has changed. 16 RESEARCH New Technology Brings Hope to Thousands A pioneering post-doctoral student who helped develop a revolutionary idea to correct scoliosis has won the Hong Kong Young Scientist of the Year Award. Dr Kelvin Yeung beat off stiff competition from seven local universities to clinch the Hong Kong Institute of Science prize, winning in the Physics panel. His research – supervised by the spinal team which includes Professors Keith Luk and John Leong, Drs Kenneth Cheung and Wi l l iam Lu (from our Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology), Professor Paul Chu and Dr Jonathan Chung (from the City University of Hong Kong) – involves using a unique lightweight flexible metal to correct severe curvature of the spine. The metal – nickel-titanium alloy – is usually used for spectacle frames and water valves, has the unique property of becoming soft and malleable at low temperatures but gradually returns to its preset shape and becomes super-elastic as temperatures rise. The current method used to correct scoliosis only has a 70 per cent success rate and involves pulling the spine straight by hand then ‘locking’ it in place with a titanium or steel implant. Although the correction is instantaneous, Yeung said the operation is risky and may result in spinal fracture or neurological damage. “The success of the operation depends on the skill and experience of the surgeon.” The newly-developed method, which has so far seen a 90 per cent correction rate in animal models, involves fitting the deformed spine with a ‘soft’ nickel-titanium frame which takes advantage of the metal’s memory and super-elasticity to realign the patient’s spine. “This alloy has two properties,” explained Yeung. “It has a memory effect and is super elastic. If we put it in the fridge it becomes soft and very malleable like clay. “But at body temperature it has the ability to return to a pre- set shape so this makes it ideal for correcting scoliosis. The spine bounces back gradually.” The alloy was first developed by the U.S. Naval Ordinance Laboratory in the 1970s but in 1998 our University team modified it, making it malleable at room temperature and super-elastic when exposed to human-body temperature. “This is a novelty that we developed at HKU and has since been patented in U.S. and patent registration is progressing in Europe and Asian countries. We have spent the last seven years testing it to make sure it’s safe for use. We did a lot of testing both mechanical, with animal models and in cell culture to see if the metal is bio-compatible so that the material can be applied not just in scoliosis but also in healing bone fractures and in minimal invasive surgery for spinal fractures,” said Yeung. One problem with the nickel-titanium alloy has been the fact that nickel is extremely toxic to the human body. But, interestingly, the titanium blocks the release of the nickel through strong chemical bonding. “But this means we have had to thoroughly test the alloy to ensure that it can stand up to wear and tear to ensure that it doesn’t leach nickel.” Working together with a team from the City University’s Department of Physics and Material Science they were able to modify the surface making it more bio-compatible and less prone to wear and tear. Scoliosis affects more than three per cent of the population worldwide and is most common in girls. Yeung said their department alone sees six to seven hundred new cases every year. “The cause of the condition is unknown. It may be genetic, neurological or muscular. What we do know is that most cases occur during adolescence. A child might appear perfectly normal and may have no signs of future problems but when they hit puberty this curvature suddenly appears and gets gradually worse.” Surgery is usually postponed until a patient reaches their teens and then, due to its risky nature, is only performed in very severe cases. If successful this new technology, which will undergo human clinical trials at the end of this year, could change the lives of thousands of people in Hong Kong alone. Kelvin Yeung with the research team.