01 October 2020
Event Date(s)/Period(s)
1 October 2020 – 31 October 2021
Organised by
HKU-Pasteur Research Pole
The HKU-Pasteur Research Pole (HKU-PRP) continued to celebrate its 20th anniversary and launched a series of events ranging from webinars, film screening, workshops, educational events, exhibitions and a fellowship programme.
On 7 June 2021, HKU-PRP and the Centre for Immunology and Infection (C2i) organised a webinar in partnership with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP). Entitled ‘From HKU-Pasteur to C2i: Confronting the challenges of infectious diseases through biomedical research for 20 years’, the webinar discussed HKU-PRP and C2i’s latest research development of new technological platforms for biomarker discovery, and of new vaccine and therapeutic strategies.
On 2 July 2021, a screening on the film ‘Unseen Enemy’ and Q&A session featuring public health experts was co-organised with Asia Society Hong Kong. Moderated by Professor Wallace Lau Chak-sing (劉澤星), Head of the Department of Medicine, Professor Leo Poon Lit-man (潘烈文), Co-Director of HKU-PRP and Professor of School of Public Health, and Dr Yen Hui-ling (嚴慧玲), Associate Professor of School of Public Health, discussed the insights and lessons learnt from the global pandemic and answered questions from the public.
HKU-PRP collaborated with the French International School (FIS) Hong Kong to organise a series of educational events, including a laboratory visit, interviews with researchers, COVID-19 video production, and a roundtable session on the importance of scientific research in the COVID-19 pandemic by Professor Ben Cowling (高本恩), Professor and Head of Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of School of Public Health, and Dr Sophie Valkenburg, Assistant Professor of HKU-PRP. In June and July 2021, two FIS students completed their two-week high school internship at HKU-PRP and experienced first-hand working as researchers in laboratories.
Featuring the ground-breaking research conducted at HKU-PRP over the past 20 years, a touring exhibition ‘20 Years Fighting Emerging Infectious Diseases’ was staged at the Hong Kong Science Park and the French International School in summer 2021, and later moved to HKUMed campus in fall 2021.
With the support of the Pasteur Foundation Asia and the Consulate General of France, HKU-PRP launched the ‘HKU‐Pasteur Research Pole Fellowship’ programme. In summer 2021, three postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows were sent to undertake 2 to 3-month research internships at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France.
To conclude the celebrations of its 20th anniversary, HKU-PRP organised a workshop ‘Know Thy Microbes’ on 21 October 2021. Local and worldwide public health experts were gathered to discuss how human relationship with the microbial world was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and outlined the next steps for researchers in the field.
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