Research

Research News
12 Jan 2021
Follow-up: Project On Sewage Helps Uncover Nine Infections In Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong sewage surveillance project involving HKU-Pasteur research teams will extend its screening capacity after successfully uncovering hidden COVID-19 carriers in two housing blocks in Hong Kong. Standard operating procedure are finalised to trigger mandatory testing of all residents in a block if sewage checks reveal two consecutive positive results or two positive results over three days.

12 Jan 2021
SARS-CoV-2 Infection Elicits Robust Neutralizing Antibody Titres In Most Individuals


30 Dec 2020
SARS-COV-2: Multidisciplinary Project On Sewage Helps Safeguarding Public Health In Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong's multidisciplinary team conducting a research for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in sewage has led to improvements in the surveillance of outbreaks in local communities and potential clusters.
Professor Gabriel Leung, Dean of Medicince (HKUMed) announced on Monday 28 December 2020, that residents of Fung Chak House in Choi Wan Estate, and anyone who visited the building since December 15, will be subject to mandatory testing after four sewage samples taken in the past five days came back positive for coronavirus.
With no confirmed cases so far in Fung Chak House, Professor Leung said the virus found in the sewage is most likely coming from an asymptomatic carrier of SARS-COV-2. The team took those samples after 15 people came down with Covid-19 in the neighboring block of Ming Lai House.
The team includes Professor Leo Poon, Co-Director at HKU-Pasteur, Doctor Hein Min Tun, Principal Investigator at HKU-Pasteur, and is led by Professor Tong Zhang of Department of Civil Engineering.
Sponsored by the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) under the Food and Health Bureau, this project allowed the collection of more than 300 domestic sewage samples from sewage collection systems in different areas for nucleic acid tests of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Since the beginning of the project in October 2020, the team has been able to demonstrate that sewage surveillance could provide early warning of COVID-19 outbreaks, reflecting the overall spread of virus in the community. It also helps tracking the development trend of community outbreak.
29 Dec 2020
C&E News 2020 Review To Celebrate Chris Mok’s Paper
In its review largely dominated by SARS-CoV-2 publications, C&E News has selected Chris Mok's paper about antibody CR3022 and SARS-CoV-2 spike structure analysis published in Science earlier this year as a top paper of 2020.
>>> C&EN’s Year in Chemistry 2020

03 Dec 2020
4-Year Research Goup Within The IPIN Call For Application 2020
The Institut Pasteur 2020 call for application for 4-year Research groups is now open !
To encourage the development of ambitious research programmes, and to strengthen scientific leadership skills of promising researchers across the Institut Pasteur International Network (IPIN), Institut Pasteur will support the creation of 4-year Research Groups (G4) in these IPIN institutes.
Deadline for application: February 12th , 2021
A G4 is a newly independent structure created for 4 years, within institutes of the IPIN (except Institut Pasteur in Paris) in order to develop or strengthen key research areas of the host institution and to participate in the development of this network by reinforcing research through collaboration and training. The aim is that after the 4 years, a sustainable new research area is initiated at the host institution and and goes on through a permanent structure.
A G4 will be composed by a PI, selected trougth an international call, and scientific staff, including Masters, PhD students, interns and/or postdoctoral researchers.
For more information on eligibility criteria and to download forms for application, please visit Institut Pasteur website.
12 Nov 2020
Evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test for detection of antibody in human, canine, cat and hamster sera
In a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology of the American Society for Microbiology, Professor Leo Poon and Professor Malik Peiris, along with the HKU School of Public Health, have evaluated a specific type of SARS-CoV-2 test enabling to detect antibody across human and diverse animal species.
In the global pandemic the world is currently facing, surrogate neutralization assays for SARS-CoV-2 in multiple species are desirable. For sero-epidemiology studies and in outbreak investigations, it is important to detect antibody responses in humans and animals to determine evidence of past infection with SARS-CoV-2. Antibody assays that are transferable across species are desirable because SARS-CoV-2 infects pets and other farmed animals. Such tests are crucial for monitoring antibody responses in experimental animal models and in studies to identify the natural animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2.
The test evaluated is a recently developed surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT). The research teams have evaluated the test in comparison to 90% plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNT90) in human, canine, cat and hamster sera. With PRNT90 as reference, sVNT had sensitivity of 98.9% and specificity of 98.8% respectively.
The study highlights an excellent concordance between the sVNT and the “gold-standard” PRNT90 assays for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection in humans, dogs, cat and hamster sera. This assay would be of great utility as a species-independent and specific assay for primary testing for antibodies to Sarbecoviruses (SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and closely related viruses) in humans or animals. The sVNT test also has the advantage of technical simplicity, speed (a few hours) and not requiring cell culture facilities or BSL-3 containment.
Read the publication online: “Evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test for detection of antibody in human, canine, cat and hamster sera”, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 02/11/2020