The Review 2013

The National Basic Research Development Program, or ‘973 Program’, is funded by China's Ministry of Science and Technology to support projects that address important scientific issues for the country's economic and social development, and that are also at the forefront of science. In 2013 a project led by Professor Che Chi-ming (pictured), the Hui Wai Haan Chair of Chemistry, was approved. It will investigate the use of excited states of metal complexes to solve two major issues facing China: energy shortages and environmental pollution. The project, which was awarded to the HKU Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation and four other Mainland institutes, involves 24 scientists and more than 100 engineers and PhD students from Hong Kong and the Mainland. It will receive up to RMB34 million over the next four years. This is the second 973 project awarded to HKU, after Professor Tan Lihai of the Department of Linguistics received funding in early 2012 to investigate the neurophysiological basis of Chinese language users. Chemists Land Second ‘973’ Project State Key Laboratories are funded by the Mainland government to support top-level basic and applied research. HKU has four State Key Labs and in 2013 we received the go-ahead for a fifth. The Partner State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology will focus on conducting basic, clinical and translational research on obesity, diabetes and their cardiovascular complications. This comes as about 93 million adults in China suffer from diabetes, which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and associated with many cancers. Professor Xu Aimin (pictured, far right) of the Department of Medicine is the Director of the Laboratory. New State Key Laboratory to Study Obesity and Diabetes • An AIDS mucosal vaccine developed by a team co-led by HKU's AIDS Institute, the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Comprehensive AIDS Research Center of Tsinghua University, shows promise in preclinical studies; published in the Journal of Virology . • A new book on China's revolution, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945 - 57 , by Chair Professor of Humanities Frank Dikötter, receives highly favourable reviews from around the world. • The 2008 economic crisis may have led to an increase in suicides around the world, according to a study led by Dr Chang Shu-sen of the HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention; published on bmj.com . • A tree-ring study by Dr Li Jinbao in the Department of Geography finds the amplitude of El Nino increases with global warming and warns of more extreme weather conditions ahead; published in Nature Climate Change . • Several important findings on the transmission of avian influenza A (H7N9), the reason for the severity of the disease, and the source and genesis of its infection in humans are published in Science , Nature , and The Lancet . The work was conducted by Professor Guan Yi, Daniel C.K. Yu Professor in Virology, Professor Malik Peiris, Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science, and Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, Henry Fok Professor in Infectious Diseases, and their teams, working in collaboration with Mainland institutions. • HKU's Robotics Team, based in the Faculty of Engineering, is one of nine teams selected and funded to compete in the world's top robotics competition, organised by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. • A mechanism is discovered for maintaining stem cells and slowing-down aging-associated changes, in a six-year study led by Dr Zhou Zhongjun and Dr Liu Baohua in the Department of Biochemistry; published in Cell Metabolism . • More than one in 10 grouper species globally face extinction due to overfishing, according to a study led by Professor Yvonne Sadovy of the School of Biological Sciences; published in Fish and Fisheries . • The factors behind an illusory effect that makes objects appear to tilt, for instance Hong Kong's skyscrapers when viewed from the Peak Tram, are identified by a team led by Dr Tseng Chia-huei in the Department of Psychology; published in Psychological Science . • The new Centre for Medical Ethics and Law is established jointly by the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine, to provide research, teaching and training. Examples of our Research in 2012-13 The University of Hong Kong ⎜ 27 THE REVIEW 2013 ⎜ Research