Two distinguished scholars at The University of Hong Kong (HKU)— Professor Michael HÄUSSER from the LKS Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed) and Professor Xuhua HE from the Faculty of Science—were among five new members elected to the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (ASHK) announced by the Academy on 11 December.

A research team from the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has harnessed citywide genetic data and developed a novel genome-resolved tracking method to uncover precisely how antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their resistance genes move across Hong Kong’s environment, offering vital insights into strategies for safeguarding public health.

A research team led by the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has conducted a pioneering study that established a causal link between childhood maltreatment (CM) and various neuropsychiatric disorders. By employing genomic analysis on neuropsychiatric data from over 500,000 individuals and CM data from over 140,000 cases, the study found that CM victims face a nearly five-fold increased lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia. Furthermore, the findings indicate that CM significantly elevates the risk of multiple neuropsychiatric disorders through altered behavioral patterns, cognitive abilities, and genomic changes, providing the scientific evidence for developing more precise early intervention and prevention strategies. The study was published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

With a Kobe University-developed procedure, induced pluripotent stem cells can now be frozen directly in their dishes without losing their viability or undifferentiated state after thawing. This marks a significant step for research automation, personalized medicine and drug discovery research.

The December tip sheet includes a range of cancer-related story ideas including how diet and exercise can make treatment more tolerable, Agent Orange linked to earlier, more severe MDS, milder chemo for lymphoma, new guidelines for pregnant women with blood cancer, art in cancer survivorship, and more.

A research team led by Prof. Tao Jiang and Prof. Jing Li from State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Academy of Military Medical Science, in collaboration with Prof. Shi-Shun Zhao from College of Mathematics, Jilin University and Prof. Jianwei Wang from NHC Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens and Christophe Merieux Laboratory, National Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, developed a viral risk prediction framework named GIVAL based on the pre-trained viral protein language model vBERT. This study proposes a general intelligent prediction method for assessing adaptation risks of unknown viruses.

A pre-school diet and physical activity programme does not improve children’s calorie intake or overall physical activity levels in nursery settings, a new University of Bristol-led study has found.  The research published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe today [17 December] highlights the need for policy-led rather than intervention-led approaches to improving young children’s health.