HKU Showcases Four Cutting-Edge Healthcare Innovation Projects in Tech Transfer Roadshow, Files IPO Prospectus

Hong Kong’s Biotech Wave Gains Momentum.

HereIt is the world’s second-largest fundraising hub for biotechnology and a popular market for initial public offerings by more healthcare companies.. It is reported that from April 2018 to April 2022, a total of 92 healthcare and biotechnology companies were listed in Hong Kong, with initial public offering proceeds reaching HK$257 billion.

In the field of translating scientific research achievements into practical applications, the Pearl of the Orient is also shining brightly.

In basic research,Hong Kong’s universities publish approximately 250 high-impact biomedical papers annually, particularly leading the world in research areas such as genetic engineering projects, SARS, neurological diseases, and the detection and treatment of nasopharyngeal/lung cancer. To date, Hong Kong hasPossesses 7 National Key Laboratories in the field of biomedicine。

Supported by policy, according to statistics,Hong Kong has invested approximately HK$100 billion to vigorously promote the development of innovation and technology, while explicitly listing biotechnology as one of the four major categories in the development of innovative technology.

With industrial resources, located in Pak Shek Kok,Hong Kong Science Park Provides Comprehensive Support Services for Hong Kong’s Biopharmaceutical Industry, including the Biotechnology Start-up Incubation Program supporting entrepreneurs, advanced laboratories, and state-of-the-art research instruments; currently, more than 100 biopharmaceutical companies have established their presence in the Hong Kong Science Park.

Among them, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is an indispensable force in the Hong Kong SAR Government’s efforts to translate scientific research achievements into practical applications. In addition to its outstanding research capabilities—more than half of the national key laboratories in the region are hosted by HKU—the university places significant emphasis on technology transfer. On one hand, it has established a dedicated Technology Transfer Office to support researchers in commercializing their findings, including assistance with patent applications and technology licensing. On the other hand, adhering to the philosophy of “being grounded in Beijing, connecting with Hong Kong, and embracing the world,” the HKU Beijing Centre was officially launched in 2021 to fully promote the integrated development of innovation and technology between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

Combining the strengths of multiple parties,HKU Beijing Centre TechHUB, HKU Technology Transfer Office, VCBeat Orange Fruit Bureauwill be2:30 PM, November 18, 2022Jointly Launching the Roadshow Event for the Commercialization of Research Achievements from The University of Hong Kong—HKU Science and Technology Innovation Intelligence Bureau | Biomedicine Special Session, and extend targeted invitations to approximately 10 industry partners, aiming to facilitate the commercialization of more valuable scientific and technological achievements, establish a platform for exchange and collaboration between high-quality research and innovation projects and leading capital firms and corporate institutions, accelerate the process of achievement transformation, and support project growth.

Project 1:R&D and Application of Biopharmaceuticals Based on Novel EPSC Technology

Speaker: Professor Liu Pengtao, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

Team Profile:

Professor Liu Pengtao, Principal Investigator at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, currently serves as the Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, and as Chairman of HKU Innovation Research Center – Center for Stem Cell Translational Research Co., Ltd. He leads a team that has undertaken numerous high-level international and domestic large-scale projects supported by the Wellcome Trust, the European Union, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Natural Science Foundation of China’s National Key R&D Program, and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Major Special Projects, achieving a series of milestone breakthroughs in the field of embryonic stem cells. His team pioneered the establishment of a novel technology system for totipotent stem cells—Expanded Potential Stem Cells (EPSCs)—and subsequently generated EPSCs from various species, including mice, pigs, humans, cattle, and sheep. Derived from pre-implantation embryos prior to blastocyst formation, these EPSCs possess superior potency to differentiate into all cell types of the organism, including both embryonic endoderm and extra-embryonic placental tissues. This advancement holds groundbreaking significance for regenerative medicine, agriculture, drug development, and cell therapy.

Project Overview:

1. Porcine EPSCs isolated from pig embryos represent the world’s first preimplantation embryonic stem cell line with full pluripotency in pigs; the establishment of bovine EPSC lines provides the first source of bovine embryo-derived stem cells amenable to highly efficient gene editing. The development of these large-animal EPSC lines will facilitate breakthrough advances in developmental biology, organ and cell transplantation, disease modeling, animal health, agriculture, and biotechnology.

2. The established human EPSCs can be utilized for the differentiation of hematopoietic and immune cells; EPSCs enable efficient gene editing for genetic modification and facilitate differentiation strategies into various tissue-specific cell types, such as hepatocytes and cardiomyocytes; they can be employed to explore the mechanisms of autoimmune diseases and develop therapeutic strategies; leveraging the extraembryonic differentiation potential of EPSCs allows for research on placental and pregnancy-related disorders as well as drug development. Recently, EPSC-based blastoid technology and the resulting humanized mice have been applied to antibody drug production; furthermore, screening platforms based on EPSC-derived cells can be used for drug screening, among other applications.

The aforementioned projects hold significant translational and application value in the fields of biomedicine and drug development.

Project 2:Tumor Immunotherapy Based on γδ-T Cells and Their Exosomes

Preparation Technology of Antigen-Specific Tregs

Guest Speaker: Professor Tu Wenwei, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

Team Profile:

Professor Tu Wenwei, the principal investigator of this research project, is a Tenured Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Ming Wai Professor of Paediatric Immunology at HKU, a Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professor, and a doctoral supervisor. He also serves as a Visiting Professor at Sichuan University, Chongqing Medical University, and the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Professor Tu has achieved innovative outcomes in the fields of translational immunology and immune cell therapy. In recent years, his team has been dedicated to developing novel immune cell therapy platforms. By integrating interdisciplinary research, they have proposed new therapeutic strategies based on immune cells such as regulatory T cells (Tregs) and γδ-T cells, and for the first time, demonstrated the potent dual anti-tumor efficacy of exosomes derived from γδ-T cells. The team has currently been granted eight invention patents in China, the United States, and the European Union, with three additional patents pending. Their research findings have opened new avenues for the development of anti-tumor therapies and interventions against transplant immune rejection.

Project Overview:

As a therapeutic approach that modulates the body’s immune response, tumor immunotherapy has been widely applied in cancer treatment in recent years. By developing technologies for the large-scale ex vivo expansion of γδ-T cells, our team has achieved mass production of γδ-T cell-derived exosomes. These allogeneic γδ-T cell exosomes carry cytotoxic and immunostimulatory molecules, enabling them to simultaneously target tumor cells, directly kill them, and induce T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses. γδ-T cell exosomes overcome the variable efficacy of cell-based therapies against solid tumors and demonstrate superior anti-tumor effects compared to exosomes derived from dendritic cells or natural killer (NK) cells. The work conducted by our research team on γδ-T cells and their exosomes has established a therapeutic modality that does not require individualized preparation and is amenable to large-scale manufacturing and application, thereby providing a novel strategy for tumor immunotherapy.

Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are a subset of immune cells with immunosuppressive functions capable of inhibiting the body’s immune rejection responses. Our team has successfully established a system for the large-scale in vitro production of CD4+ and CD8+ Treg cells within a short timeframe. Antigen-specific Treg cells produced using this system exhibit individual specificity and potent immunosuppressive activity. Their efficacy in effectively suppressing transplantation-induced rejection has been successfully validated in humanized mouse models, with significant therapeutic effects achieved after a single injection. This approach offers advantages including personalized precision customization, high stability, high specificity, and an absence of long-term side effects. This technology provides a novel paradigm for the clinical application of Treg cells in treating post-transplant immune rejection, holding promise for resolving the most significant challenge in global transplantation—the need for donor-recipient matching—and ushering in a new era for bone marrow and organ transplantation. This research has been granted multiple national invention patents in the United States, Europe, and China.

Project 3:Chemical Proteomics Platform Empowers New Drug Development

Pioneering Development and Application of Chemical Inhibitors Targeting the YEATS Domain

Keynote Speaker: Professor Xiang Li, Tenured Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

Team Profile:

Professor Li Xiang, the principal investigator of this project, is an Academician of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences and Chair of the American Chemical Society’s Hong Kong Section. He currently serves as a tenured professor in the Department of Chemistry and the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong. Professor Li has been honored with the Hong Kong Outstanding Young Scholar Award and The University of Hong Kong Outstanding Young Researcher Award. He has achieved innovative results in fields such as epigenetics, chemical proteomics, and medicinal chemistry, publishing dozens of papers in high-impact international journals and holding four U.S. patents. In recent years, Professor Li’s team has focused on cancer therapy, leveraging interdisciplinary advantages to construct large-scale databases and establish a next-generation drug discovery platform, thereby pioneering new directions for elucidating cancer mechanisms, identifying therapeutic targets, and developing novel drugs.

Project Overview:

As members of human chromatin remodeling complexes, histone modification machinery, and transcriptional complexes, YEATS domain proteins are deeply involved in the initiation and progression of cancer, making them potential therapeutic targets for various malignancies. The team led by Li Xiang established a chemical proteomics platform based on photo-crosslinking technology, which enables high-throughput screening and efficacy evaluation of drugs in live cells. Leveraging this platform, the team developed the first highly active peptide inhibitor targeting the ENL YEATS domain, which specifically binds to the ENL YEATS domain at the cellular level and reduces the expression of leukemia-driving genes. Furthermore, the team provided the first class of small-molecule inhibitors targeting the YEATS2 YEATS domain, offering new avenues for treating solid tumors such as lung cancer and liver cancer.

Project 4:Technologies and Applications of Stem Cell Gene-Targeted Therapy for Genetic Diseases and Tumors

Speaker:Lian Qizhou, GMP Scientific Director of the Advanced Cell and Gene Therapy Centre, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

Team Profile:

Dr. Lian Qizhou, the head of this project team, currently serves as the Scientific Director of the Centre for Cell Therapy at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. With over 20 years of experience in stem cell therapy and gene therapy, he has led his team to establish a robust R&D platform and a comprehensive system encompassing standardized, large-scale manufacturing of therapeutic products and their clinical translation. He spearheaded Asia’s first hematopoietic stem cell gene repair therapy, successfully saving a patient suffering from fatal metachromatic leukodystrophy. Dr. Lian has published more than 100 papers in prestigious international scientific journals, including Cell Stem Cell, Circulation, and Nature Metabolism.

Project Overview:

By integrating stem cell and gene editing technologies, a new generation of more effective Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) has emerged in recent years for the treatment of refractory diseases. Through the application of genetically modified adult stem cells and pluripotent stem cells, we have developed a powerful precision medicine platform. We pioneered Asia’s first hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy, successfully treating patients with metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), a rare genetic disorder caused by lipid accumulation in the brain. Recently, we have also established a gene-engineered pluripotent stem cell platform capable of producing targeted immune cells at scale, providing new avenues for cellular immunotherapy in cancer and other degenerative diseases.

About TechHUB at the University of Hong Kong Beijing Center

Guided by the vision of “Rooted in Beijing, Connected to Hong Kong, and Embracing the World,” the University of Hong Kong Beijing Centre (HKU Beijing) has established the HKU Beijing TechHUB. Leveraging the vast mainland Chinese market, the strong basic research capabilities of Hong Kong’s higher education institutions, and Hong Kong’s unique advantage as an international hub linking China with the world, the TechHUB places faculty and scholars at its core. It mobilizes venture capital firms and industry incubators, deeply integrates industrial, investment, and government resources, and promotes the integrated development of innovation and technology between the mainland and Hong Kong.

About the Technology Transfer Office of The University of Hong Kong

The Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a service unit under HKU, responsible for managing the university’s inventions and intellectual property assets, negotiating industry collaborations, and handling legal matters related to technology commercialization. The TTO aims to bring HKU’s scientific research achievements to the global stage and benefit the public through technology transfer. Our experts possess extensive experience in technology transfer across natural sciences, life sciences, and information technology. The TTO team is responsible for assessing the patentability and commercial potential of inventions. After years of dedicated effort, we have processed more than 2,400 patent applications. Our close connections with various application industries have become an engine for launching new research projects, creating broader educational opportunities, and fostering investment and collaborative partnerships.

About VCBeat Orange Bureau

VB Orange is a professional platform under VCBeat, dedicated to innovation and translation in the medical field. With exploration, cognition, and service as its starting points, it deeply connects every participant in the innovative industry chain, continuously tapping into their innovation potential. Centered on addressing actual needs, VB Orange genuinely accompanies a group of scientists in their growth, ensures that each link in the ecological chain receives equitable returns for their efforts, and facilitates the better implementation of more valuable medical innovation projects in China.

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