Remarkable research and innovation from CUHK have reaped multiple awards at this year’s International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. A CUHK professor also received the honour of AIMBE College Fellowship in recognition of his novel technology for rehabilitation and his contribution to the education of biomedical engineering.

The Microbiota I-Centre of CUHK has identified distinct gut microbiome profiles that can characterise “long COVID”. This is the world’s first study to demonstrate gut microbiota as a key determinant of long COVID. These distinct gut microbial signatures can be used as a diagnostic tool and to guide therapy.

People who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection may suffer from poor memory, hair loss, difficulty in sleeping and other long-term consequences, which are commonly known as “long COVID”. CU Medicine has found that patients with long COVID have a less diverse gut microbiome, indicating that gut microbiome composition may be linked to the risk of developing long COVID, while gut microbiota modulation could facilitate timely recovery and reduce the burden of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome.

Sinovac and BioNTech work more effectively in people who have an abundance amount of a particular bacterium called Bifidobacterium adolescentis in their gut. In most of us, this reduces with age, modern diet, stress, and the use of antibiotics, and a joint CUHK-HKU study has found that those who lack it have a lower antibody response to the vaccines. This implies that modulating the gut has potential to power up the impact of COVID vaccines.

In the past two months, CUHK scholars gained international recognition from various disciplines for their outstanding research achievement. Three medicine scholars’ effective translation of non-invasive prenatal test and cancer diagnostic approaches from scientific research level into clinical application, has earned them inclusion in “Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2020” by the world-renowned scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.

Constant academic pursuit by scholars is essential to driving improvements in life and social progress. Scholars and research studies from CUHK have received international and national awards in various disciplines over the past few months, with research excellence widely recognised.