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CUHK Receives Nine Awards in the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva
Scientific innovations developed by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received recognition for outstanding performance in the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2021. Nine medals in total were awarded to CUHK, including one Gold with Congratulations of the Jury Medal, three Gold Medals, two Silver and three Bronze Medals. These projects cover a variety of areas such as health technology, renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
Here is a summary of CUHK award-winning projects:
Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury:
A Novel Virus-Free Anticancer Gene Therapy
Members: Dr. Patrick Ming Kuen TANG, Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine; Professor Huiyao LAN, Choh-Ming Li Research Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Massive pathogenic genes have been discovered for cancer, but the lack of corresponding target drugs largely limits their clinical translation. Although gene therapy can utilise viruses to modify diseased genes to eradicate cancer, viral vectors have certain clinical safety risks. So, the research team invented a new gene therapy that can regulate gene transcription without using a virus.
The research team has combined RNAi interference technology and an ultrasonic microbubble system to guide shRNA expression plasmids into tumour tissues to induce therapeutic effects by inhibiting the diseased genes at transcriptome level. Importantly, no virus is used throughout the process. This invention can be used as a rapid evaluating platform for anticancer efficiency and the safety of new therapeutic targets preclinically, as well as a further development towards a safe targeted gene therapy clinically.
Gold Medal:
Self-powered smart watch and wristband enabled by embedded generator (link to press release)
Members: Professor Wei Hsin LIAO, Dr. Mingjing CAI and Dr. Jiahua WANG, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
The limited battery life of smart watches and wristbands remains a pain point. The research team has designed an embedded and compact electromagnetic generator that can self-power wearable gadgets. Unlike existing products, the invention uses a novel magnetic frequency-up converter and harnesses the kinetic energy of human motion. The converter transforms the low-frequency arm swing to achieve the desired output power.
Gold Medal:
Highly Sensitive Gas Sensing and Control System (link to press release)
Members: Professor Wei REN, Dr. Ke XU, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
The research team has invented a portable and highly sensitive gas sensing system that can provide a variety of information about the concentration, temperature, and pressure of multiple harmful gas components such as CO, NOx, NH3, SO2 in real time. It has adopted an advanced laser spectroscopy technology and artificial intelligence algorithm allowing direct application to the fields of environmental protection and medical treatment, including exhaust monitoring in power plants, the petrochemical industry and vehicle emission, as well as components monitoring in patient breath.
Gold Medal:
PhotoAir: Measuring indoor and outdoor PM2.5 with a mobile phone (link to press release)
Members: Professor Bo HUANG, Shiqi YAO, from the Department of Geography and Resource Management, Faculty of Social Science
PhotoAir, a mobile app, allows a smart phone user to take a photo to measure PM2.5 concentrations, indoor or outdoor, day or night in real time regardless of weather conditions. Grounded on physical optics and empowered by deep neural networks, the app provides unprecedented levels of accuracy and efficiency in measurements and an incomparable flexibility over traditional instruments. PhotoAir offers a super-handy tool for real-time monitoring of PM2.5 concentrations ubiquitously, thereby helping citizens avert from heavily polluted areas, reduce exposure to air pollution and make informed choices towards a healthy lifestyle.
Silver Medal:
Soliste – A Social Listening System for Understanding Your Customer
Members: Professor Kam Fai WONG and Dr. Gabriel FUNG, from the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering
Silver Medal:
Harvesting energy from walking human body (link to press release)
Members: Professor Wei Hsin LIAO, Dr. Fei GAO, Gaoyu LIU, Brendon Lik-Hang CHUNG and Hugo Hung-Tin CHAN, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
Bronze Medal:
QuickCAS: An easy-to-use analysis system for quick detection of infectious pathogens in clinical samples (link to press release)
Members: Professor Li ZHANG, Dr Lidong YANG and Wai Shing LIU, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering; Professor Joseph SUNG, Emeritus Professor of CUHK; Dr. Sunny WONG, from the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine; Professor Philip CHIU, Dr Kai Fung CHAN, from the Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine; Professor Margaret IP, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine
Bronze Medal:
Dementia screening in 30 seconds with 1 simple drawing
Members: Professor Kelvin TSOI, The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine
Bronze Medal:
Intelligent magnetic anchored and guided endoscope for minimally invasive surgery
Members: Professor Zheng LI, Professor Calvin NG, Professor Philip CHIU and Mr. Truman CHENG, from the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine; Professor Joseph Sung, Emeritus Professor of CUHK
A novel virus-free anticancer gene therapy, developed by Dr. Patrick Ming Kuen TANG (right) and Professor Huiyao LAN (left), receives the Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury in the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2021.
The embedded energy harvester in smart watch and wristband, developed by the research team led by Professor Wei Hsin LIAO, receives the Gold Medal.
Professor REN’s research team is collaborating with power plant companies in the mainland China to apply the gas sensing and control system.
Grounded on physical optics and empowered by deep neural networks, the mobile app developed by Professor Bo HUANG offers real-time monitoring of PM2.5 concentrations.
