Bulletin No. 2, 2015

Simulations and Estimations of Interactions between Human Activities and Global Changes The Shenzhen Research Institute of CUHK initiated the National Key Basic Research Programme ‘Simulations and Estimations of Interactions between Human Activities and Global Changes’ in August 2015, with Prof. Lin Hui, director of the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, as the project’s principal scientist. Collaborators of the programme include the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Nanjing Normal University. The research will focus on international issues that are hard to generate accurate simulation of human activities, and construct an Earth system model that integrates the activities’ impacts, so as to simulate and assess the interactions between human activities and global changes. FMT Effectiveness Triples that of Conventional Treatment The gastroenterology team of the Faculty of Medicine has been using Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) to treat patients with severe Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection. The result reveals a cure rate of over 85% when using FMT, which is significantly higher than that of conventional ant ib i ot i c t reatment. The p rocedure involves collection of about 50 to 100g of stool from a healthy donor, followed by dilution with sterile saline and filtration. The supernatant is then infused to patients through different approaches involving nasoduodenal tube, esophagogastroduodenoscope or colonoscope. Dr. Ng Siew-chien (2nd left) of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics said the aim of FMT is to introduce healthy microbiota to restore the microbial ecology in the digestive tract. FMT has therapeutic potentials in other diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, metabolic diseases and autoimmune diseases. RESEARCH 40 Chinese University Bulletin No. 2, 2015