Bulletin No. 2, 2013

46   Chinese University Bulletin No. 2, 2013 CUHK Receives Four Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards On 16th May, the University received four Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) from the Ministry of Education in 2012, which made CUHK the institution with the highest number of awards in the local tertiary sector. At the award presentation ceremony, Dr. Du Zhanyuan (left), Vice-Minister of Education, presented the award certificates to Prof. Benjamin W. Wah (right), Provost, CUHK. Led by Prof. J oseph J.Y. Sung, Prof. Henry L.K. Chan, Prof. Yu Jun and Prof. Vincent W.S. Wong; the research project on ‘Investigation and Application of Pathogenesis and Intervention for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease’ received the first-class award in Scientific and Technological Progress. Projects receiving second-class awards in the Natural Sciences included ‘Theory of Microscopic Mechanisms of Electron Spin Decoherence, Coherence Protection and Applications’, ‘Molecular Systematics of Decapod Crustaceans’, and ‘The Safety Study of Islet Xenotransplantation’. The professors honoured were Prof. Liu Renbao, Prof. Chu Ka-hou, Prof. Wang Yixiang and Prof. Charlie C.L. Wang. Biologist Receives Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant Conducted by Prof. Michael K. Chan, director of the School of Life Sciences, the research project entitled ‘Novel Dawadawa Therapy for Intestinal Helminthic Infections’ received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Professor Chan and his collaborator, Dr. Manoj Nair of Ohio State University, plan to engineer a new formulation of dawadawa, a staple food in western Africa, which can be used to treat and prevent infections by soil-transmitted nematodes. It will help to make the newly formulated dawadawa a potentially effective product for preventing intestinal kelminthic infections at low cost. Dennis Lo Elected to US National Academy of Science Prof. Lo Yuk-ming Dennis, director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, has been elected as a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the US. Professor Lo’s election was based on his discovery of circulating fetal nucleic acids in the plasma of pregnant women and his pioneering work in translating this discovery into innovative non-invasive prenatal diagnostic tests, such as that for Down syndrome. In a relatively short period of one-and-a-half years since the clinical launch of such tests, over 250,000 have been performed globally, representing one of the most rapidly developing areas of molecular testing. Honours and Recognition