KT Awards Recipients of Year 2021/22

HKBU Innovation Award

Awardee: Dr YU Yuanyuan

School of Chinese Medicine

Project:

“From functional study of sclerostin loops in bone & cardiovascular system to Orphan Drug Designation”

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), also known as brittle bone disease, is a rare hereditary bone disease with no effective drugs for treatment. It affects 6 to 7 in 100 thousand people worldwide.  Dr Yu and her team have firstly found that sclerostin loop3 participates in inhibiting bone formation, but not in protecting cardiovascular system. It guides drug discovery direction to address the clinic challenge (a cardiovascular safety concern) of the marked sclerostin antibody in osteoporosis treatment. Further, Dr Yu and her team have identified an oligonucleotide aptamer drug (Apc001) functionally targeting sclerostin loop 3 (the second generation of sclerostin inhibitor) to promote bone formation with low cardiovascular concern for bone anabolic therapy in osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfect animal models. The therapeutic aptamer Apc001 has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by US FDA (FDA, DRU-2019-6966) in 2019. This is the first drug in Hong Kong and the first aptamer drug in China being granted “orphan drug” designation by FDA.

HKBU Innovation Award

Awardee: HKBU Transdisciplinary Team

- School of Chinese Medicine

- Faculty of Social Sciences

- Department of Social Work

- Finance Office

- Human Resources Office

- Estates Office

- Office of Information Technology

- Communication and Public Relations Office

Project:

“Project on Caring for Patients of COVID-19: Integrated Model of Online Chinese Medicine cum Emotional Support”

Given the recent upsurge in cases amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, HKBU has established a transdisciplinary team of experts and supporting personnel to offer a free and integrated Chinese medicine service, as well as emotional support service to COVID patients, their close contacts and carers. The Chinese Medicine Telemedicine Centre, School of Chinese Medicine, and Social Work Practice and Mental Health Centre, Department of Social Work provide the services. This Project represents an important step towards innovating care model for patients who receive Chinese medicine treatment and more, a new HKBU’s frontier in transdisciplinary collaboration as well as the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) to deliver both medical and psychosocial care.