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Ten distinguished scholars receive Croucher Innovation and Senior Research Fellowship Awards

14 Apr 2015

 

(Issued on behalf of the Croucher Foundation)

The Croucher Foundation held the presentation ceremony of the Innovation and Senior Research Fellowship Awards today (April 14), honouring ten distinguished scholars from four universities including The University of Hong Kong (HKU), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), for their excellent scientific research achievements. The Honourable Mr John Tsang Chun-wah, Financial Secretary, was the officiating guest at the ceremony.

The guests at the ceremony observed a moment of silence in memory of Dr Rayson Huang, former HKU Vice-Chancellor, who passed away on April 8. Dr Huang was a founding member and life Trustee of the Foundation.

This year, four awardees were presented with the Innovation Awards, four with the Senior Research Fellowships and two with the Senior Medical Research Fellowships. The list of awardees is as follows:

Croucher Innovation Award 2014
Dr Stephanie Kwai-Yee MA (HKU)
Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

Croucher Innovation Award 2015
Dr Tom Hiu-Tung CHEUNG (HKUST)
Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, School of Science
Dr Kam-Tuen LAW (Joint Award) (HKUST)
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, School of Science
Dr Shizhong ZHANG (Joint Award) (HKU)
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science

Croucher Senior Research Fellowships 2015
Dr Benjamin John COWLING (HKU)
Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
Professor Liwen JIANG (CUHK)
Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences, Director of AoE Centre for Organelle Biogenesis and Function
Professor Kenneth Kam-Wing LO (CityU)
Professor, Department of Biology and Chemistry
Professor Zhongjun ZHOU (HKU)
Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

Croucher Senior Medical Research Fellowships 2015
Professor Ui Soon KHOO (HKU)
Clinical Professor, Department of Pathology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
Professor Patrick C Y WOO (HKU)
Head and Clinical Professor, Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

Croucher Innovation Award 2014 recipient
Dr Stephanie Kwai-Yee MA (HKU), Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Dr Ma’s main research interest is focused on elucidating the molecular basis of two cancer types prevalent in Southeast Asia, namely hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).  Specifically, she is interested in the identification, characterisation, ‘omic’ profiling and therapeutic targeting of liver and esophageal cancer stem cells.  Her group not only identified CD133 as a functional marker of liver cancer stem cells, but also elucidated a number of key signaling pathways that are crucial in regulating tumor growth and self-renewal in this subpopulation of cells.  By understanding the cancer stem cell properties, she hope to contribute to the betterment of clinical management of cancer patients, hopefully by providing future strategies to suppress tumor re-growth and overcome resilience to therapy.  According to the ISI Essential Science Indicator, which tracks how many times research papers are cited by other scholars, she is listed as the Top 1% of Most Cited Scholars under the category of ‘Clinical Medicine’ and ‘All Fields’. (Please click here for Dr Stephanie Ma’s biography)

Croucher Innovation Awards 2015 recipients
Dr Tom Hiu-Tung CHEUNG (HKUST), Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, School of Science. Dr Cheung’s main research area focuses on somatic stem cell biology.  His laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular regulation of stem cell quiescence and activation and how these signaling pathways play a role in tissue regeneration as well as stem cell ageing.  Using skeletal muscle stem cell as a model system, his research team is currently attempting to decipher the molecular pathways that are essential for muscle stem cell function and the regulation of stem cell ageing.  The long-term goal of his laboratory is to achieve better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of why tissue regeneration is impaired during ageing and devise therapies for aged-associated diseases using regenerative medicine. (Please click here for Dr Tom Hiu-Tung CHEUNG’s biography)

Dr Kam-Tuen LAW (HKUST, Joint Award), Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, School of Science. Dr Law is a condensed matter theorist. His research focuses on the study of exotic states of matter such as fractional Quantum Hall states, topological insulators, topological superconductors, and low dimensional superconductors. In particular, Dr Law has published a number of works in recent years on the realization and detection of topological superconductors, which have potential applications in making quantum computers and spintronic devices. Some of his theoretical predictions have been used to explain the results of several key experiments on the detection of topological superconductors. (Please click here for Dr Kam-Tuen LAW’s biography)

Dr Shizhong ZHANG (HKU, Joint Award), Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science. Dr Zhang’s main area of research is the physics of cold atomic gases, which explores the quantum behavior of interacting particles at extremely low temperatures. Cold atom physics is a new interdisciplinary field that has inherited precision measurement and control from atomic physics, and has used it to simulate and study other complicated material and physical processes. Currently, his research focuses on the transport properties of such cold atomic gases and their possible implications for our understanding of high-temperature superconductors. In addition, Dr. Zhang is also interested in using the cold atom approach as a model system to simulate physics of complicated materials (e.g., topological semimetals). (Please click here for Dr Zhang Shizhong’s biography)

Croucher Senior Research Fellowships 2015 recipients
Dr Benjamin John COWLING (HKU), Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Dr Cowling’s primary research area is in studying the epidemiology of respiratory infections, particularly respiratory viruses including influenza.  In recent years, he has designed and implemented large field studies of influenza virus infection and transmission in the community, and the effectiveness and impact of control measures such as vaccines. His research spans from analyses of transmission dynamics at the individual level up to disease burden and dynamics at the population level, and he has a particular interest in understanding how the characteristics of person-to-person spread contribute to patterns in incidence of infections in populations. (Please click here for Dr Benjamin John Cowling’s biography)

Professor Liwen JIANG (CUHK), Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences and Director of AoE Centre for Organelle Biogenesis and Function. Professor Jiang is a plant cell biologist and has been focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms of protein transport and organelle biogenesis in plants over the past 15 years. Since protein transport and organelle biogenesis are crucial for plant development and plant stress resistance, understanding of their molecular mechanism will in future contribute to the development of plant biotechnology. Professor Jiang received the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship in 2009/2010 due to his outstanding research achievements in the study of plant protein transport. This is the second time Professor Jiang has been awarded by the Croucher Foundation. Professor Jiang's research team has been internationally recognized as a leading group in the field. Major contributions include the identification of multivesicular body (MVB) as prevacuolar compartment and trans-Golgi network as early endosome as well as the novel EXPO compartment and EXPO-mediated unconventional protein secretion pathway in plant cells. These findings have shed new light on the molecular mechanisms in plants with potential impact on crop improvement. (Please click here for Professor Jiang Liwen’s biography)

Professor Kenneth Kam-Wing LO (CityU), Professor, Department of Biology and Chemistry. Professor Lo has been carrying out research in the utilisation of luminescent transition metal complexes as biological probes and imaging reagents. His research has demonstrated that luminescent inorganic and organometallic transition metal complexes can be developed as a new generation of biological reagents for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In the past decade, his research team has designed and synthesised a wide range of strongly luminescent transition metal complexes containing reactive functional groups, which enable the complexes to be used as labels for various biological molecules including DNA, amino acids, peptides, and proteins. In the past few years, the team has also developed an interest in the cytotoxicity, cellular uptake, intracellular transport, and localisation properties of luminescent transition metal complexes. Almost all the complexes designed by the team show high membrane permeability and efficient cellular uptake by mammalian cells, indicating that the complexes can serve as novel intracellular sensors and bioimaging reagents. (Please click here for Professor Kenneth Lo Kam-Wing’s biography)

Professor Zhongjun ZHOU (HKU), Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Professor Zhou is an internationally recognised expert on laminopathy-based premature aging and extracellular matrix.  His major research field is bone development, blood vessel development and aging.  His research focuses on premature aging and aging-associated diseases, as well as extracellular matrix.  Professor Zhou and his team identified prelamin A as an in vivo substrate for metalloproteinase Zmpste24 through a genetic approach and explained how Lamin A’s abnoramality influences development and aging.  His team demonstrated lamin A activates longevity protein SIRT1 to maintain the stem cell potency.  He revealed for the first time that mutation in nuclear structural protein lamin A compromises DNA repair, which contributes to accelerated aging in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.  His work provides important insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS). This has an important implication in normal aging and aging–related human degenerative disorders. (Please click here for Professor Zhou Zhongjun’s biography)

Croucher Senior Medical Research Fellowships 2015 recipients
Professor Ui-Soon KHOO (HKU), Clinical Professor, Department of Pathology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Professor Khoo is known for her expertise and research in breast cancer, particularly in molecular genetics and pathobiology.  She pioneered the study of breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 in Chinese breast and ovarian cancer patients.  Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator.  As first-line adjuvant treatment to prevent ER positive breast cancer recurrence, it revolutionised the management of breast cancer.  However, almost half these patients develop resistance to tamoxifen treatment over time.  Alternative splicing is a key post-transcriptional mechanism resulting in multiple protein products from a single gene.  Variants of a given protein due to splicing event can display different and even antagonistic biological functions.  Among her achievements has been the identification of a novel alternatively spliced variant BQ to the NCOR2 gene which is associated with development of tamoxifen resistance.  Her current research encompasses the development and characterisation of a monoclonal antibody to this novel BQ variant which will be used for in vitro and in vivo studies to confirm the role of BQ in the development of tamoxifen resistance, the elucidation of the underlying mechanisms and its application as a biomarker for tamoxifen resistance prediction.(Please click here for Professor Khoo Ui-Soon’s biography)

Professor Patrick C Y WOO (HKU), Head and Clinical Professor, Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Professor Woo has established himself as one of the leaders in the field of emerging infectious diseases, novel microbe discovery and microbial genomics.  In the past 15 years, Professor Woo’s team has discovered more than 100 novel viruses, bacteria and fungi, most of which were named after Hong Kong or HKU. Some of the most well-known examples include Laribacter hongkongensis, human coronavirus HKU1, and the recently discovered dromedary camel coronavirus UAE-HKU23 from the Middle East.  His group has discovered the largest number of coronaviruses in the world and has also sequenced the first bacterial and fungal genomes in Hong Kong.  These have laid down the foundation of microbial genomics studies in Hong Kong. (Please click here for Professor Patrick Woo’s biography)

The Croucher Innovation Awards
Established in 2012, the Croucher Innovation Awards aim to identify a small number of exceptionally talented scientists working at an internationally competitive level and to offer substantial support to these “rising stars” at a formative stage in their careers. The scheme is designed to enable recipients to pursue their own scientific, intellectual and professional inclinations, to advance their expertise, to engage in bold new work, and to contribute to the development of education and research in Hong Kong. Each award carries a value of up to HK$5 million over 5 years. For a shared award, the amount is HKD2.5 plus an allowance for collaborative research of HKD1.8 million.

The Croucher Senior Research Fellowships/ Croucher Senior Medical Research Fellowships
The Croucher Senior Research Fellowships scheme was first introduced in 1997. The value of the awards are about HKD900,000 for the Senior Research Fellowship and HKD1,000,000 for the Senior Medical Research Fellowship, each includes a personal grant of HK$60,000 to the recipient for research expenses.  It is awarded to local academics who have excelled in scientific research work as judged by leading international scientists invited to provide confidential reviews of candidates nominated in a competitive exercise. Funds are awarded to the universities of the fellowship recipients, enabling the university to recruit replacement teachers to take over the award winner’s duties for the period of the fellowship.  This enables the awardees to devote more time and effort to research work.

Media enquiries:
The University of Hong Kong
Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media)
Tel: (852) 2859 2600,  Email: melwkwan@hku.hk

The University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
Grace Ng, Assistant Manager (External Relations)
Tel:3917 9995/9107 1676, Email:gracesk@hku.hk

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Sherry No, Head of PR and Media
Tel: 2358-6317, Email: sherryno@ust.hk

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Karen Cheng, Communications and Public Relations Manager
Tel: 3943 8892, Email: karencheng@cuhk.edu.hk

City University of Hong Kong
Karen Cheng, Communications & Public Relations Office
Tel: 3442 6805, Email: cheng.karen@cityu.edu.hk