Inaugural Gabriel Leung Lecture by Professor Dame Sally Davies
24 October 2023

Professor Dame Sally Davies is the 40th Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University and the first woman to hold the post. She was appointed as the UK Government's Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in 2019.

Dame Sally was the Chief Medical Officer for England and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government from 2011-2019. She is a leading figure in global health, having served as a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board 2014-2016, and as co-convener of the United Nations Inter-Agency Co-ordination Group (IACG) on Antimicrobial Resistance, reporting in 2019. In November 2020, Dame Sally was announced as a member of the new UN Global Leaders Group on AMR, serving alongside Heads of State, Ministers, and prominent figures from around the world to advocate for action on AMR.

In the 2020 New Year Honours, Dame Sally became the second woman to be appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) for services to public health and research, having received her DBE in 2009. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA in 2015.

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/sally-davies

Dr Richard Kao Yi Tsun received his PhD (Microbiology; under the supervision of Julian Davies) in 1999 at the University of British Columbia. He finished his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and joined The University of Hong Kong in 2001 as a Research Assistant Professor, first in HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, and later in the Department of Microbiology. Now he is the Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine, and a Member of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at HKU. Dr Kao's research focuses on the application of chemical genetics in infectious diseases and his study on SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has presented the world's first model of chemical genetics in virology. Using chemical genetics approach, Dr Kao's team worked on influenza viruses and published in 2010 a Nature Biotechnology article detailing the groundbreaking discovery of influenza A nucleoprotein as a novel druggable antiviral target and nucleozin a potent antagonist of the nucleoprotein. Most recently, Dr Kao has extended his work on chemical genetics to bacterial virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and has illustrated the potential use of antivirulence compounds to treat MRSA infections. For his innovative concept of using non-antibiotic antivirulence compounds to tackle staphylococcal infections, Dr Kao received the Innovation Academy Award from the International Consortium of Prevention and Control of Infection (ICPIC) in Geneva in 2017. Dr Kao was also the recipient of the 2018 Chinese Medical Association China Science and Technology Award and the 2019 State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.

Dr Yen Hui Ling is Associate Professor at the School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. She studies factors that facilitate the spread of respiratory viruses using laboratory experiments and field studies, with the aim of finding interventions to break the agent-host-environment interactions critical for viral spread. She works with interdisciplinary research groups to investigate the mechanisms of influenza transmission among and between different reservoir hosts, virus-host interactions that affect viral pathogenicity and transmission, and molecular determinants that confer antiviral resistance.

Dr Yen received her PhD in Epidemiological Science from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and her postdoctoral training at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

Professor Chak-Sing Lau BBS, JP
Dean of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
Daniel C K Yu Professor in Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Chair Professor of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Immediate Past President, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine

Professor CS Lau is an international expert in rheumatology. He presided over the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (2016-2020); the Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (2006); the Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology (1997-2001); and founded the Hong Kong Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation (2001). He was a member of the Outcomes in Rheumatology, European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Scientific Committee and is an expert advisor to the HKSAR Government on multiple health-related policies. In January 2023, he was appointed as a Member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) representing the health sector, and a general Member of the 14th Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC.

Professor CS Lau's research interests include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and related disorders. He has published over 435 articles and delivered more than 355 presentations. He is on the editorial board of many peer-reviewed journals including Nature Reviews Rheumatology, Lupus, Arthritis Research & Therapy, Rheumatology & Autoimmunity, and Rheumatology & Immunology Research and was Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases (2004-2012).