‘Collaborations are important to enable us to quickly translate research findings.’ Dr Kathy Leung Sze-man Protection, the number of severe patients treated by the Hospital Authority, outbreaks reported in elderly homes, and the number of patients in holding centres reported by the Social Welfare Department,’ she said. ‘Collaborations are important to enable us to quickly translate research findings.’ Continued teamwork, diligence, quick responses and an open-minded curiosity will be necessary to stave off the next pandemic, too. So will a deep consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Professor Poon. ‘We need to think about how the infrastructure, network, platform and guidelines that were established can be improved further. And we need to find a way to harmonise all these policies from different countries. The best time to advocate for these things is now, in the aftermath, when people still remember the effects of COVID-19. In a couple of years, they will forget because they have other priorities.’ Professor Yuen sees more work ahead across the spectrum of detecting, diagnosing, treating and vaccinating against new viruses – and even working on a reusable face mask to reduce the impacts on the environment. After all, the health of people, animals and the environment are closely linked. ‘We also have to continue to collaborate with scientists in the Mainland and all over the world and find innovative ways to discover new emerging infectious disease agents. Because viruses can rapidly mutate their genes to escape from our immune defence in order to infect and spread in human or animals, they are cunning enemies who continue to search for weak points to attack.’ Dr Chan hopes to see more industry partnerships, especially in the Greater Bay Area, to help bring their discoveries to patients. ‘It is very disheartening for us to make an important discovery and have the finding just lapse. Our biggest hope is that what we find in the laboratory can improve the care of patients,’ he said. →Dr Kathy Leung Sze-man was named by Nature Medicine as one of the ‘11 Early-Career Researchers to Watch’. 11 HKUMed News Summer 2023
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzg4NDg0