World-leading Research FEATURE HKUMed’s success in research has been nothing short of remarkable. In just over 30 years – barely one generation – we have transformed ourselves into a world-class research centre. In 2021 alone, 17 HKUMed scholars were named most highly cited in the world; two scholars received the Future Prize, China’s ‘Nobel’ prize (Professor Yuen Kwok-yung and Professor Malik Peiris); and the government formally announced HKUMed is leading six InnoHK centres that will together receive $2.2 billion in total. To appreciate how far we have come, consider that until 1991 there was no government funding and little support for research. Research had to be done in ‘non-existent time’ outside working hours, according to Professor Young, and it was driven largely by individual motivation and determination to do the research and find funding from overseas. As soon as regular funding became available in Hong Kong, our scholars made a leap in their research output. Since the early 1990s, they have achieved such breakthroughs as the world’s first right-lobe liver transplant from a living donor, the identification of cancer stem cells responsible for metastasis of colorectal cancer and development of liver cancer, a new oral arsenic ‘We clearly have a strong pool of research talent already and we are having good success in attracting distinguished scholars to join us from overseas. This will only make us better.’ Professor Gabriel Leung 10
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