News

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of breast cancer with a high fatality rate. Currently, chemotherapy is the major treatment option, but the clinical result is unsatisfactory. A research team led by biologists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has identified and characterised a set of specific super-enhancers that stimulate the activity of the related critical cancer genes. The research has also discovered that the deletion of certain specific super-enhancers could reduce tumour cell growth. The latest findings may help discover new effective drug targets for TNBC patients to improve their survival chance.

Goats can adapt to changing environmental conditions more quickly than sheep probably because of different feeding ecologies, according to a new study involving Dr Alan McElligott, an expert in animal behaviour and welfare at City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

Researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) received 12 awards, including a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury, five Gold Medals, three Silver Medals and three Bronze Medals at the Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days (IGED) 2021, a virtual edition of the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva.

On the anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic, the Poultry Hub’s Deputy Director reflects on lessons from SARS CoV2. Read Professor Dirk Pfeiffer’s blog on why and how we must rethink our food system now to prevent the next pandemic.

 

New medicines can save and improve lives, but drug discovery is an extremely long and expensive process. One of the top scientists at CityU is developing an integrated system based on his internationally recognised, award-winning biochip technology, with the aim of providing a novel drug-screening tool with greatly reduced drug development time and cost.

Many genetic variants have been found to have a linkage with genetic diseases, but the understanding of their functional roles in causing diseases are still limited. An international research team, including a biomedical scientist from City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has developed a high-throughput biological assay technique which enabled them to conduct a systematic analysis on the impact of nearly 100,000 genetic variants on the binding of transcription factors to DNA. Their findings provided valuable data for finding key biomarkers of type 2 diabetes for diagnostics and treatments. And they believe that the new technique can be applied to studies of variants associated with other genetic diseases.

As one of the most progressive universities in the world, City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has a well-earned global reputation as an innovative centre for research and professional education. According to metrics compiled by Stanford University, over 140 CityU faculty members are listed among the top 2% of the world's most highly cited scientists, reflecting the high academic standard of our faculty and our excellent research performance. Compared to faculty size, CityU's percentage of the world's top 2% most highly cited scientists is among the highest in Asia.

While the world is still trying to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Dirk Pfeiffer, Chow Tak Fung Chair Professor of One Health at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) and Director of the Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice (OHRP), warned that the next pandemic could be even worse. The whole world must learn the lessons from the current pandemic, and one of them is that we need to adopt the “One Health” approach to better manage and ideally prevent such pandemics, and to deal more effectively with other global human, animal and environmental health issues, he said.

Big-data research led by Professor Julia Beatty, Head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences; Chair Professor of Veterinary Medicine and Infectious Diseases; and Director of the Centre for Companion Animal Health at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has found that although more than 80% of cats in Australia were desexed, only a fraction have had surgery before reaching puberty, thus creating a “pregnancy gap”. To close this gap and prevent unwanted litters, it is recommended that the age of desexing is before four months.