Annual Report 2011–12

2 012 年是圖靈誕生一百周年，世界各 地都有紀念活動。圖靈是英國數學 家，二次大戰時協助英國破譯了納粹德國 的密碼，他更是計算機科學的先驅，因發 明「圖靈機」而獲得計算機科學之父的 美譽。 圖靈在 1948 年曾說：「孤立的人發展不 出知識力量。……新技術的探尋，必須視 為整體人類社會的努力，而非個人的功 績。」中文大學的研究人員也本着圖靈這 種研究精神，希望自己的研究，能為人類 知識的探索，起到承先啟後的作用。本年 度他們有多項耀眼的研究成果。 發現細胞逆轉凋亡 有助研究治癌方法 由中大生命科學學院馮明釗教授率領，成 員包括中大和美國約翰霍普金斯大學醫學 院科學家的研究團隊，在 2009 年曾發現， 癌細胞即使已進入名為「細胞凋亡」的自我 毁滅過程，仍有可能逆轉，恢復細胞功能。 這種現象可能是癌症病人接受化療，以藥 物促使癌細胞進行「細胞凋亡」後，癌症仍 會復發的原因之一。這個團隊最新的研究 更發現，人類正常細胞與癌細胞一樣，能夠 逆轉凋亡過程。 研究團隊在 2009 年發現癌細胞能逆轉凋亡 後，利用從小鼠、大鼠和鼬分離出的正常 細胞作進一步研究，發現正常細胞也可逆 轉凋亡過程，並恢復其功能。他們稱這種 現象為‘ anastasis ’（希臘文「復活得生」 之意）。 2 012 has been dubbed the ‘Alan Turing year’ with a series of events and activities taking place all over the world celebrating the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth. Turing was the British mathematical genius who is best known for breaking the Nazis’ Enigma code during the Second World War. He is also widely considered to be the father of computer science for inventing the ‘Turing machine’. In 1948 Turing wrote: ‘The isolated man does not develop any intellectual power.… The search for new techniques must be regarded as carried out by the human community as a whole, rather than by individuals.’ Researchers at CUHK also strive to make discoveries that can be passed on to others and the later generations of researchers, thus contributing to advancing the frontiers of human knowledge. Their achievements in this academic year are encouraging. Discovery of ‘Anastasis’ of Human Cells Led by Prof. Fung Ming-chiu from the School of Life Sciences, a research team comprising scientists at CUHK and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found in 2009 that cancer cells could evade apoptosis, a cell-dying process, even after passing the presumed point of no return. Their finding helps explain why it is very common that patients would experience cancer recurrences after chemotherapy, which supposedly brings apoptosis to cancer cells. A new study from the same research team demonstrates that like cancer cells, normal cells can also evade apoptosis. Their new findings reveal that primary cells isolated from 開拓人類知識的版圖 Pushing Knowledge Frontiers Pushing Knowledge Frontiers 21