Attracting Support

For years, our researchers have had great success in competitive funding exercises and 2019 was no exception. We performed strongly in both Hong Kong-based schemes and those from Mainland China.

National Key R&D Recipients

“Tissue damage and organ failure caused by ageing, disease and accidents may potentially lead to increased morbidity and mortality in patients. Although recent advances in tissue engineering and biomaterials have regenerated injured tissues and organs, the clinical outcome, especially for the functional recovery, has not been satisfactory due to the complexity of human tissues. We propose to address that clinical challenge by focusing on the tissue microenvironment,” Professor Lu said.

He is leading a multidisciplinary team from five institutions in Mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as an industrial partner. They will fabricate functional 3D bio-printed scaffolds for tissue and organ regeneration and aim to print 12 different tissues and organs, such as full-thickness skin, cornea, bone, cartilage and large blood vessels, to test in pre-clinical animal models. Positive results will mean they can proceed to clinical trials and ultimately benefit hundreds of thousands of patients each year.

Developing new alloys is the focus of a project that awarded RMB11.07 million in the second round of the MOST scheme open for Hong Kong and Macau to Professor Huang Mingxin of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Huang has both industrial and academic experience in working with metal and alloys, and he will lead his team in developing new nanostructured high entropy alloys that have the potential for application in extremely low temperatures or in nuclear power plants.

“We have always been actively looking for funding opportunities beyond Hong Kong. When we saw this call for proposals, we felt that our research expertise fitted very well with the programme. Through this project, we want to demonstrate that HKU’s expertise can make important contributions to national R&D projects,” Professor Huang said.

His team includes researchers from HKU, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian University of Technology and Xi’an Jiaotong University, covering expertise in such areas as metallurgy, mechanics, nuclear technology and ab-initio calculation.

“Our overall aim is to improve options for the control of pandemic and seasonal influenza through a greater scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying individual and population immunity. This includes complementary research on virology, immunology, epidemiology, and vaccinology,” he said. “It’s really important that we have these large collaborative thematic research projects because by working together, we can have much greater potential impact through the synergy between our disciplines.”

Liver tissue repair, particularly after transplantation, is the focus of a $45 million TRS project by Professor Lo Chung-mau. The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver cancer incidence and the shortage of deceased organ donors is a great burden on individuals and the healthcare system.

Professor Lo, who is Chair of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Chin Lan-Hong Professor in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and Chief Executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, will be building on HKU’s world-leading expertise in liver transplantation, particularly living donor liver transplants using a graft of the right liver lobe. He and his team will focus on the persistent problems of recurrent disease and liver graft injury post-transplantation by exploring the underlying mechanisms of cancer recurrence and HBV reactivation, identifying biomarkers and developing potential treatments.