The Review 2014

Collaborations with scholars in other disciplines and other institutions help us to extend and enhance our research capabilities. Several formal collaborative agreements were made in 2013-14. We rekindled our ties with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to undertake collaborative research activities. The two institutions first made contact 126 years ago through the Hong Kong College of Medicine, predecessor to the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. We also entered a new phase of our partnership with the Institut Pasteur by establishing the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole. This will build on formal research ties that began in 1999 to advance the understanding and treatment of infectious diseases. HKU also signed an agreement with Cambridge University in 2014 to collaborate on emerging issues in medical ethics, law and policy. These agreements add to ongoing partnerships with such institutes as King’s College and Imperial College in London, the University of Toronto and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, as well as numerous project- specific collaborations with academics and institutions in Hong Kong, Greater China and elsewhere. Such connections spur innovation and discovery, and help us to make the most of our talents and resources, as the examples on these pages illustrate. Tracking Climate Change HKU was part of an international study involving 29 people in 10 countries and various disciplines that used models to show all parts of world ocean systems would be undermined by climate change by 2100. This would affect food chains, fisheries and tourism, and directly impact between 470 million and 870 million of the world’s poorest people. HKU also worked separately with US and Norwegian scientists to show how rapid changes in climate cause abrupt changes to deep- sea biodiversity. They used fossils embedded in sediment to track changes over decades and centuries. Meanwhile, another team involving HKU and Yale University tracked the temperature change of the tropical Pacific Ocean over 12 million years, contributing to the understanding of Earth’s climate system. HKU’s links to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine stretch back to the opening of the Hong Kong College of Medicine, predecessor to the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, in 1887. The College's first Dean was Sir Patrick Manson, who later founded the London school. The two institutions rekindled their ties in late 2013 and agreed to undertake joint research activities. This montage, which showcases an article in a 1956 copy of HKU student magazine Elixir , was presented to the London school at an international symposium held at HKU entitled 2014 East-West Alliance Global Symposia. HKU is a world leader in viral research Some members of the HKU research team which, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute in the US, developed a novel influenza A vaccine which can be adapted for mass production in case of a worldwide influenza outbreak. Left to right: Professor Malik Peiris, Dr Sophie Valkenburg, Dr Olive Li and team leader Dr Leo Poon. Partners and Collaborators Virus Hunters HKU is a global leader in research on infectious diseases and we have worked closely with colleagues from around the world. In 2013-14, our researchers identified a drug candidate for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronovirus (MERS- CoV), with the Chinese Academy of Scientists and Fudan University. Another team, involving HKU, the National Research Centre of Egypt and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US, found the MERS-CoV in dromedary camels. This team then worked with researchers from King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia to show that the virus from the camels could infect human tissue. Influenza is another focus of viral research. A universal influenza A vaccine that can induce protective responses against different influenza A viruses in mice was developed by scientists from HKU’s School of Public Long-standing Relationship Health and the National Cancer Institute in the US. Another team, from HKU and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Trust Institute in the UK, found direct evidence that reducing the genetic diversity of influenza A viruses reduced the severity of the disease in mice. Research THE REVIEW 2014 ⎜ 25