The Review 2003

17 18 T he University of Hong Kong aspires to be counted among the top universities in the world. Our success will depend in large part on a strong, internationally-recognised research profile. Thanks to the investment made by the Hong Kong community in our work over the years, we are well on our way to achieving that goal. The backbone of our funding is the Research Grants Counci l ’s Compet i t i ve Earmarked Research Grants, an exercise in which the University consistently performs well. Indeed, in six of the past seven years we have gained the largest slice of funding. In 2002-03 we received $107.9 million, more than any other Hong Kong institution. We also continued to do well in the fiercely competitive Innovat ion and Technology Suppor t Programme of the Innovation and Technology Fund, recei v ing $34.92 mi l l ion for eight projects – the highest number of projects approved among local tertiary institutions. In addition to government support money, we obtained $11.49 million for research through the HKU Foundat ion for Educat ional Development and Research, which seeks private donations. Our funding success reflects the quality of our staff. Eighteen of our professors are among the top one per cent in their field, according to a survey by the US-based Institute for Scientific Information which ranks scientists based on citations of their work in leading publ icat ions in thei r f ield. Our researchers make contributions across many disciplines – everything from the treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer to analysis of the impact of WTO membership on China’s legal system. In 2003, they were on the front pages of newspapers around the world following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome – SARS. It was a wrenching time for everyone, especially given the unknown nature of the virus. But the University’s researchers were well-positioned to answer some concerns and allay the public’s fears. For many years, our scientists have been investigating animal-related viruses and their transmission. Dur ing the outbreak of the H5N1, or ‘bird flu’, virus in 1997, for example, we were closely involved in researching the virus. When SARS took hold in Hong Kong in March 2003, our experts had the experience and skills to produce accurate information rapidly, providing a service to both Hong Kong and the international community. We were the first to identify the killer virus and sequence the genome, and we did so within weeks of the disease appearing in Hong Kong. Later, we publ ished two significant papers in Science , a prestigious and exacting international publication, on our other findings on the disease. A microbiology team isolated a SARS- l ike coronavi rus in civet cats and concluded the SARS virus mutated in animals before t ransmission to humans. The Department of Community Medicine looked at the impact of public health interventions in controlling the spread of the disease, together with the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College, University of London. They concluded that public service announcements, the medical referral system and self-imposed restrictions by the public had a signi f icant impact in slowing down human-to-human transmission of SARS. A major focus of SARS research now is on treatment and prevention. A team from New York is working with the University to develop a drug that would block the ability of the SARS virus to invade cells. The team is led by Dr The Review 2003 INVESTING IN RESEARCH A team of Scientists from the Faculty of Medicine