Hong Kong Baptist University

01/13/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/13/2025 00:22

HKBU announces Nobel Laureate and leading medical and healthcare professionals as members of Expert Advisory Committee for new medical school proposal

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) announces the formation of an Expert Advisory Committee (the Committee) for its new medical school proposal preparation, subsequent to the formation of the Preparatory Committee. This esteemed Committee comprises Nobel Laureate Sir Michael Houghton, who is also the member of the Preparatory Committee, and leading professionals from various fields of medicine, public and private clinical practices, healthcare industry, and academia, which will provide HKBU with invaluable insights and guidance in designing the curriculum for medical education, and establishing a research hub for medical research.

As the 2020 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of hepatitis C virus (HCV), Sir Michael Houghton is currently the Professor of Virology and Director of the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Canada. Sir Houghton is a globally renowned virologist who pioneered a new area of viral hepatitis research that enhanced blood product safety and laid the foundation for the development of advanced hepatitis C treatment, ultimately making it possible to cure the viral infection in nearly all patients. He is currently developing a vaccine against HCV by optimising both the production of cross-neutralising antibodies and cross-reactive cellular immune responses to the many different genotypes of HCV that occur around the world1.

In addition to Sir Michael Houghton, other expert members of the Committee include:

• Local experts:

o Professor Felix Chan Hon-wai, JP, Specialist in Geriatric Medicine and Honorary Clinical Professor, The University of Hong Kong;

o Dr Samuel Kwok Po-yin , President, Association of Private Medical Specialists of Hong Kong which has over 2,000 practising private specialists in Hong Kong as members;

o Dr Luk Che-chung, JP, former Cluster Chief Executive of three different hospital clusters of the Hospital Authority, including Hong Kong East Cluster, Hong Kong West Cluster and Kowloon East Cluster;

o Mr Albert Wong Kwai-huen, SBS, BBS, JP, Chairman of Board of Directors, HKBU Chinese Medicine Hospital Company Limited;

• Greater Bay Area (GBA) and national experts:

o Professor Song Erwei, President, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSMH, also referred to as The Second Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University);

o Professor Zhang Kang, Chairman, World Association of Chinese Eye Doctors;

• Healthcare industry experts:

China:

o Ms Leng Weiqing, Executive Director and Chairlady, Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Company Limited; and

International:

o Dr Robert J Spiegel, M.D., FACP, former Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of the Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck & Co). He is also a Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm.

Professor Alex Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU and Convener of the Preparatory Committee for the New Medical School, stated, "We are honoured to welcome such a distinguished group of local, national and international medical and healthcare industry experts to join our Committee. The wealth of knowledge and expertise brought by Sir Houghton and all Committee members, many of whom have substantial experience spanning from clinical practices and teaching, innovation and research, to development and application, will be instrumental in the planning of our new medical school and its future initiatives. Their advice and support will help HKBU set new standards in healthcare education and research, ensuring that the proposed medical school delivers world-class education and fosters groundbreaking research and technology translation, helping to develop a new generation of clinicians and clinician-scientists."

"The engagement of these esteemed experts represents another pivotal step in our journey towards establishing a leading medical school at HKBU. Their acumen will be invaluable as we navigate the complexities of developing a comprehensive and innovative medical education programme. In addition to our partnership with The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (FAH-SYSU), we will announce our partnerships with other relevant institutions shortly. We are excited that these strategic partnerships will bring an unprecedented impact on the GBA, our nation, and beyond," added Professor Manson Fok, Co-Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the New Medical School.

The Expert Advisory Committee's collective expertise and dedication will play a crucial role in shaping the future of medical education in Hong Kong. HKBU looks forward to working closely with the Committee members, the Preparatory Committee which includes Professor Lee Sum Ping, Professor Manson Fok, Sir Michael Houghton, The Honourable Dr Bernard Charnwut Chan, Professor Lai Ching Lung, Professor Xiao Hai-peng, Professor Johnson Lau, and other stakeholders to realise this project, fostering excellence in medical education, training, research and innovation with a global vision.

Professor Alex Wai also stated, "With the strong support from local, the GBA, the Mainland, and international top-notch medical and healthcare professionals that are passionate about Hong Kong, we are confident that our novel medical school model will address all the requirements as mandated by the Task Group on New Medical School. Our new medical school will also aim to complement the two existing top-notched medical schools in The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In due course, we will be providing the other key supporting elements of our medical school formation, and also details of the innovative part of our medical school model that will not just address the need of more medical doctors in Hong Kong, but also add a new dimension in research collaborations, from Hong Kong, the GBA and the Mainland to international collaborators and institutions to plant the seeds for medical innovations going forward."

1 https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/mhoughto

Biographies of Expert Advisory Committee Members

Sir Michael Houghton

2020 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Michael Houghton was the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology from 2010-2018 and is the Li Ka Shing Professor of Virology at the University of Alberta where he is also the Director of the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute. He was jointly named the 2020 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine along with Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice in recognition of the discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). His research in the field of viral hepatitis has led to improved blood product safety, and hepatitis C treatment to the point where the viral infection can now be cured in virtually all patients. He has also been working on an HCV vaccine for the last 30 years in the US & Canada.

Born in the United Kingdom, Houghton graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BSc in biological sciences in 1972 and subsequently completed his PhD in biochemistry at King's College, University of London in 1977.

Houghton joined G. D. Searle & Company in the UK studying human interferon genes before moving to Chiron Corporation in 1982 where, together with colleagues Qui-Lim Choo and George Kuo, and Daniel W. Bradley from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they first discovered HCV in 1989. Houghton was co-author of a series of seminal studies published in 1989 and 1990 that identified hepatitis C antibodies in blood, particularly among patients at higher risk of contracting the disease, including those who had received blood transfusions. This work led to the development of a blood screening test in 1990; widespread blood screening that began in 1992 with the development of a more sensitive test has since virtually eliminated hepatitis C contamination of donated blood supplies around the world.

Houghton was recruited to the University of Alberta in 2010 as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology in the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology. In 2013, Houghton's team at the University of Alberta showed that a vaccine derived from a single strain of Hepatitis C could prevent infection of cell cultures by most global strains of the virus.

Top 5 of Dr. Houghton's significant contributions:

• Discovery of the HDV genome (K-S.Wang et al Nature,1986)

• Discovery of HCV & specific diagnostics (Q-L.Choo et al Science 1989, G.Kuo et al Science 1989)

• First demonstration of HCV vaccine efficacy in non-human primates (Q.L.Choo et al PNAS 1994)

• First demonstration of broad HCV cross-neutralising antibodies elicited in vaccinated humans (J.Law et al Plos One 2013)

• Identification of multiple, highly conserved cross-neutralising antibody epitopes in HCV envelope glycoproteins (J.Wong et al JVI 2014)

Source: https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/mhoughto

Professor Felix Chan Hon-wai, JP

Specialist in Geriatric Medicine and Honorary Clinical Professor, The University of Hong Kong

Professor Felix Chan Hon-wai is a specialist in Geriatric Medicine and Honorary Clinical Professor of The University of Hong Kong. Before moving to the private sector in August 2020, he has held posts of Service Director of Primary and Community Health Care, Clinical Stream Coordinator (Medical) and Program Director of Advanced Internal Medicine in the Hong Kong West Cluster of the Hospital Authority. He was Division Chief of Geriatrics of the University Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, and Chief of Service (Medicine) of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Fung Yiu King Hospital, and Consultant Geriatrician in-charge of the Grantham Hospital.

Professor Chan has pioneered community geriatric services, telemedicine, end-of-life care, ortho-geriatrics, dementia care, and implemented collaboration programmes with non-government organisations in promoting ageing-in-place and healthy ageing. He has served in the editorial board of the Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics, contributed three book chapters in the "Curriculum in Geriatric Medicine", and over ninety publications in peer-reviewed local and international journals. He has been awarded Outstanding Staff of the Hospital Authority in 2020.

Professor Chan has served as President of the Hong Kong Geriatrics Society, Convenor of the Advisory Group on the "Hong Kong Reference Framework for Preventive Care for Older Adults in Primary Care Settings" of the Department of Health, Co-Chair of the Grant Review Board for the Health and Medical Research Fund, Member of the Elderly Commission, Expert Group on Dementia Care, Guardianship Board, member of Advisory Council on Food and Environmental Hygiene, Advisory Committee on Mental Health, Elder Academy Development Foundation, and the Assessment Panel of Innovation and Technology Fund for Application in Elderly and Rehabilitation Care.

Dr Samuel Kwok Po-yin

President, Association of Private Medical Specialists of Hong Kong

Dr Samuel Kwok Po-yin has been the President of the Association of Private Medical Specialists of Hong Kong since 2008. He has been the President of The College of Surgeons of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2007. He is also Chairman of the Healthcare Dispute Resolution Centre and Chief Medical Executive of Virtus Medical Group, Hong Kong. He has served as Chief Medical Executive of the COVID-19 Community Vaccination Centres from 2021 to 2023 and has been a member of the Medical Advisory Committee at St. Paul's Hospital since 2019. Additionally, he has been the Chairperson of the Federation of Private Healthcare Centers of Hong Kong and a Surgeon and Director at Virtus Medical Group since 2018. His previous roles include Chief of Medical Staff and Deputy Chief of Medical Staff - Surgery at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, and Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Endoscopy Education Center at the same institution. He has also held various other positions in the public and private sectors.

Dr Kwok is currently a member of the Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the Hong Kong District Director for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation Promotion Association's Medical and Health Committee. He is part of the teaching staff at the Faculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science & Technology, and an Associate Doctor at the University Hospital of the Macau University of Science and Technology Foundation. Furthermore, he serves as a Clinical Professor (Honorary) at the Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and as an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, since January 2005. He has also been the Chief of Service since September 1995 and an Honorary Consultant in the Department of Surgery at United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong since April 2003.

Among his major awards, Dr Kwok received the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service in 2022 and led the Rapid Sequence Surgical Clinic Development Team to win the Hospital Authority Outstanding Team Award in 2000.

Dr Kwok graduated from the Medical Faculty of The University of Hong Kong in 1983 and subsequently became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1988, a Foundation Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Surgeons in 1990, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1991, and a Foundation Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in Surgery in 1993.

Dr Luk Che-chung, JP

Former Cluster Chief Executive of three different hospital clusters, Hospital Authority

Dr Luk was among the first batch of medical graduates from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been a healthcare executive in the public sector for 31 years with a full range of exposure and a track record in the management of complex and big healthcare systems. He has worked in the Hospital Authority Head Office for 10 years and then managed various public hospitals for 21 years. He was the Cluster Chief Executive of three different hospital clusters managing several hospitals, including Queen Mary Hospital, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital and United Christian Hospital.

Dr Luk retired from Hospital Authority in 2021 and is currently the Vice Chairman and Chief of Medical Services of the Virtus Medical Group Limited. Virtus is a major medical group in Hong Kong with 15 speciality centres/clinics providing a holistic range of specialist medical care.

Dr Luk has multiple community engagements in the healthcare, welfare and education fields. He is currently a member of the Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tung Wah College and Adventist College, Trustee of United College, School Committee of Diocesan Boys' School and two other secondary schools, Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, Elder Academy of the Labour and Welfare Bureau and Elderly Commission, and a voting member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. He is an advisor/consultant to many patient groups and NGOs. In recent years he has been actively engaged in the Social Housing Movement and later Modular Housing initiatives. He was also a member of the Medical Council of Hong Kong and the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Optometry of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

He was awarded Justice of Peace by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 2019 and the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020.

Mr Albert Wong Kwai-huen, SBS, BBS, JP

Chairman of Board of Directors, HKBU Chinese Medicine Hospital Company Limited

Mr Albert Wong Kwai-huen is currently the Chairman of Board of Directors of HKBU Chinese Medicine Hospital Company Limited. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital.

Mr Wong is the principal of Huen Wong Consultancy and an independent non-executive director of a number of listed public companies in Hong Kong. He is admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Mr Wong serves as the Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Review (Inland Revenue Ordinance), Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of South China International Arbitration Center (Hong Kong), and the Honorary Legal Adviser of the Hong Kong Business Accountants Association. He was a board member of The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited, the Hospital Authority, the Airport Authority Hong Kong and various public hospital governance boards.

Professor Song Erwei

President, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University

Professor Song Erwei is Professor of Breast Surgery at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CMB (China Medical Board) Distinguished Professor and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK). Currently, he serves as Director of the Health Science Center and President of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, SYSU. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. at Zhongshan Medical School and was trained as a surgeon at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, SYSU. He received post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in 2002 and became an instructor at the CBR Institute of Biomedical Research at Harvard in 2004.

As a clinician scientist, Professor Song is keen to address scientific questions derived from clinical practice. He is the pioneer of breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in China, a new surgical concept in contrast to mastectomy, which preserves breast microenvironment tissues for the activation of anti-tumour immunity. As a surgeon, Professor Song has compiled the first Chinese Experts Guidelines for Breast-conserving Surgeries for Early Breast Cancer. His early publication "RNA interference targeting Fas protects mice from fulminant hepatitis" in Nature Medicine was the first to report that siRNA could be used therapeutically in a whole animal disease model. This finding was selected as one of the "Top Ten breakthroughs of the year 2003" by Science, and has paved the foundation for clinical RNAi therapeutics.

Professor Song's contribution to cancer immunology is indisputable. In 2022, Trends in Immunology published a feature review of his proposal of "effector immune cell deployment (EICD)", a revolutionary concept that depicts the most comprehensive approach to reflect cold and hot tumour immunotyping, which includes the priming, circulation, activity, trafficking, and fate of antitumour effector immune cells. In over 30 years of immunological research, he has uncovered important subtypes of cancer-associated immune cells, receptors, juxtracrine and pathways that have resulted in a paradigm shift in the field of cancer immunotherapy. He uncovered various new subtypes of cancer-associated immune cells and mesenchymal cells, and elaborated on their mechanisms, providing new insights for cancer immunotherapy. Professor Song recently proposed the "Theory of Tumor Ecosystem", which emphasises the importance of viewing cancer as a viable ecosystem where the host's internal environment is vital for cancer cell survival and growth. In November 2022, he was awarded The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Medical Sciences for proposing and reinforcing "the Theory of Tumor Ecosystem". His latest book on Tumor Ecosystem: an ecological view of cancer growth and survival was published by Springer Nature Publishing in June 2023.

Professor Song has published 171 SCI research articles in internationally recognised journals, which include Nature, Cell, Cancer Cell, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Cancer, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, etc. As an active member of the society, he serves as Chair of Breast Tumor Experts Committee of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), and Vice Chair of Surgeon Society, Chinese Medical Doctor Association. He also serves as the Associate Editor for Science China-Life Sciences, Co-Executive Editor for Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-reviews On Cancer, and has chaired an international Cell Symposium for Cell Press on "Functional RNAs".

Source: https://www.sysu.edu.cn/sysuen/info/1042/54401.htm

Professor Zhang Kang

Chairman, World Association of Chinese Eye Doctors

Professor Zhang Kang is the Chairman of World Association of Chinese Eye Doctors. Professor Zhang obtained his M.D. with Magna Cum Laude honours from Harvard Medical School, and MIT joint MD programme and his PhD in genetics from Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, The Royal Society of Medicine, and The Royal Society of Chemistry. He currently serves as the Director of the Ophthalmology Department at the University Hospital, Macau. Professor Zhang has made significant contributions in the fields of ophthalmology, medical artificial intelligence, oncology, molecular genetics, and precision medicine. He has published over 400 articles indexed by WOS, including nearly 300 articles published in top journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine, with a total citation count exceeding 75,000 and an H-index of 114. He holds more than 30 international invention patents. From 2019 to 2024, he was consecutively listed in the cross-field category of the global "Highly Cited Researchers" for six years and has received honours, such as the Changjiang Scholar and the Fok Ying-Tung Prize of the World Association of Chinese Doctors.

Ms Leng Weiqing

Executive Director and Chairlady, Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Company Limited

Ms Leng Weiqing is the Executive Director and the Chairlady of Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Company Limited, and the Executive Director and the Chairlady of Shanghai Industrial Holdings Limited (listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Stock Exchange") (Stock Code: 0363) and is among the first batch of red-chip stocks listed in Hong Kong). Ms Leng obtained a bachelor's degree in education, an EMBA degree and the qualification of a senior economist. She was the Deputy Head and the Head of the Leading Personnel Management Division of Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Vice President of Shanghai Electric (Group) Corporation, a member of the Organization Department, Head of the Enterprise Personnel Division, Deputy Director of the Organization Department of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, Head of the office at Shanghai Municipal Organization and Establishment Committee, and the Chairlady and Chief Executive Officer of Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited. She has extensive experience in corporate governance, strategic operations and management as well as human resources. Ms Leng is a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the honorary chairlady of The Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association. She was an Executive Director and the Chairlady of Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited from August 2021 to November 2023 (the H shares of which are listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange (Stock Code: 2727) and the A shares of which are listed on the A Shares Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange).

Source: http://www.sihl.com.hk/en/about-us/directors-and-senior-management-profiles

Dr Robert J Spiegel, M.D., FACP

Former Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of the Schering-Plough Research Institute

Dr Spiegel currently serves as an Associate Professor at the Weill Cornell Medical School, as a Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, and an Advisor to the Israel Biotech Fund, a venture investment fund. He is also a member of the board of directors of Geron Corporation, a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company since 2010, Ayala Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage oncology company, since December 2017, and RenovoRx, a clinical-stage oncology company, since April 2023, and Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Limited (SPARC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, since June 2020. In the last five years, he has served as a director for PDS Biotechnology Corporation (formerly Edge Therapeutics, Inc.), a biotechnology company, from August 2013 to March 2019, Athenex, a biopharmaceutical company, from August 2020 to September 2023, and Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted medicines for cancer and other proliferative diseases, from September 2018 to January 2025.

From March 2011 to April 2016, Dr Spiegel served as Chief Medical Officer of PTC Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing treatments for rare disorders. In 2009, after 26 years with the Schering-Plough Corporation (now Merck & Co.), a global healthcare company, Dr Spiegel retired as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of the Schering-Plough Research Institute, the pharmaceutical research arm of the Schering-Plough Corporation. His career at Schering-Plough involved various positions, including Director of Clinical Research for Oncology, Vice President of Clinical Research, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Clinical Research. Following a residency in internal medicine, Dr Spiegel completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, and from 1981 to 1999 he held academic positions at the National Cancer Institute and New York University Cancer Center. Dr Spiegel holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Source: Dr Robert J Spiegel and extracted from https://www.geron.com/board-of-directors/robert-spiegel/