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UNDERSTANDING HEALTHY HUMANS, IMMUNITY AND INFECTION Hong Kong will become a global centre of excellence for developing precision medicine strategies and innovative interventions against emerging infectious diseases, through the Immunology, Infection and Precision Medicine research programme. Experts from HKUMed and Institut Pasteur (IP), which has been a collaborative partner of the Faculty for 20 years, will establish the Healthy Human Global Project. They will first map the variability of the immune responses in the healthy Chinese population thereby defining “immune health”, taking into consideration population genetics, local endemic infections, diverse microbiota, lifestyle and environment. This will be based on data collected from the 1997 birth cohort being followed by the School of Public Health. The data will form the basis of an Immune Report Card, which will identify patient risk factors for disease, the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of specific diseases, and responsiveness to vaccines, providing the basis for personalised medicine. Alongside these population-level investigations, researchers will investigate novel vaccines and treatments for viral infections. A short-term target is to create new “universal” influenza vaccines that can be deployed rapidly as first responders in the event of a pandemic, as well as a vaccine for seasonal flu. Several lines of investigation are already underway and the large, diverse dataset from the Healthy Human Global Project will help take the research forward. A candidate vaccine is expected to be identified within the next few years. In addition, there will be projects to identify new strategies for immune therapies by focusing on the host (patient) response, and to develop high-throughput screening platforms to assess patient risk from emerging infectious disease and to develop new medicines. The programme leader is Professor Malik Peiris, one of the world’s leading public health virologists who has contributed significantly to the global public health response to COVID-19, as recognised by the WHO and international scientific community. “We hope to accelerate research into personalised medicine and into developing new effective vaccines and drug candidates, to improve health, and to enhance responsiveness to challenges posed by pandemics, pollution and an aging population,” he said. We hope to accelerate research into personalised medicine and into developing new effective vaccines and drug candidates, to improve health, and to enhance responsiveness to challenges posed by pandemics, pollution and an aging population. 05 Medical Faculty News