Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) president Nancy Ip Yuk-yu hopes to break new ground in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease after securing mainland China’s support to tap into its database of 10 million patients and work with hospitals there next year.
In an interview with the Post, the renowned neuroscientist and Alzheimer’s disease expert said she was confident Hong Kong would stay ahead of its rivals in innovation and technology (I&T) if it continued to nurture and attract talent, adding that it enjoyed unique advantages from being part of the Greater Bay Area.
She said Hong Kong’s international research collaborations had remained unscathed despite growing geopolitical tensions between the West and China, and called on scientists worldwide to stay focused on working together to tackle global challenges such as ageing and sustainability.
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Ip, 66, took over as president last month, becoming the first woman to lead a public university in Hong Kong. She has a PhD in pharmacology from Harvard Medical School and worked in New York before joining HKUST in 1993. She is also head of the Hong Kong Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
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Outlining her plans for HKUST, she said she wanted the university to be a leading institution making significant global contributions and also hoped to encourage female students to break the “gender myth” and succeed in science and technology-related fields.
“I will dedicate all my efforts to elevate the university to a high level of success by creating a vibrant collaborative environment for learning, discovery and innovation,” she said.
Ip revealed that after President Xi Jinping visited her centre during his trip to Hong Kong in July, several hospitals across the border asked about forming partnerships, and that obtaining access to the massive database of mainland Chinese patients with Alzheimer’s disease was also significant.
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Explaining how this could help accelerate research and treatments for the disease which causes dementia, especially in older people, she said: “There are currently about 10 million Alzheimer’s disease patients and this number will continue to grow to over 30 million by 2050.”
Ip’s latest breakthrough relates to the quick and early detection of Alzheimer’s disease by testing a single drop of blood, which could become available to the public as early as next year.
Her team is also developing a new treatment by applying genome-editing technology to the brain with a novel way of using an old drug, as well as pushing for earlier detection of the disease.
She said she would work with mainland hospitals and clinicians next year to make her team’s diagnostic tool available to more patients there.
“If we have access to a much bigger number of samples, it will accelerate our research,” added Ip, who holds 44 patents and has published more than 260 scientific papers.
Acknowledging competition from countries in the region, including Singapore and Australia, she said Hong Kong had to nurture local talent and attract more from overseas to develop as an international I&T hub, a goal envisaged by Xi.
“Talent is the key,” she said, adding that the city needed scientists, engineers, clinical and regulatory specialists and production experts, as well as intellectual property professionals, patent lawyers and finance experts to help tech start-ups
She urged authorities to do more to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education starting from primary schools.
Recalling how her secondary school biology teacher inspired her passion for science, she said Hong Kong could nurture local talent by encouraging more students, including girls, to pursue STEM education.
“Currently there’s a gender myth that perhaps girls are not good at science and technology,” she said.
“We need to eliminate this kind of gender myth, and we can only do so by raising awareness, and by providing them with successful women scientists as role models.”
She also pledged to engage with her students, given the social fractures since the unrest in Hong Kong in 2019.
“I do believe that students are key stakeholders of the university so I’m keen to build a communication channel with them,” she said.
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“It’s important to have their voices heard. And it’s important to engage them and share with them about the development of the university.”
Touching on the regional I&T race, Ip said she was confident that as long as Hong Kong had the talent, it would have the upper hand because it was part of the Greater Bay Area, which links the city and Macau with nine cities in Guangdong province.
Beijing’s ambitious plan is to create an economic powerhouse to rival California’s Silicon Valley by 2035.
Pointing out that the Guangdong cities in the bay area already had advanced, hi-tech production capabilities and vast opportunities Hong Kong could tap, Ip said: “This is something Singapore doesn’t have. They don’t have the Greater Bay Area.”
She also said she was not concerned that Hong Kong’s scientific research collaborations would be hurt by geopolitical tensions that have resulted in the United States imposing restrictions on Chinese firms’ access to Western technology.
“Science really has no borders. We advance our knowledge because we want to bring benefits to society, and collaboration really is the key,” Ip said.
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She said scientists worldwide should join hands to tackle global challenges such as the ageing population and sustainability.
“These cannot be resolved by individual researchers, we need to collaborate ... to advance knowledge so that we can benefit humankind and society,” she said.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong scientists say blood test for detecting Alzheimer’s disease could become available to public by next year
- Hong Kong researchers develop Alzheimer’s disease blood test, paving way for mass screening and early detection
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