Download HKU-Pasteur Research Centre - HKU

香 港 大 學 - 巴 斯 德研究中心
H K U-Pasteur R es e a rc h Ce nt re
Fighting infectious diseases
through biological research and
teaching
The HKU-Pasteur Centre, Dexter HC Man building
(HKU-PRC) is a non-profit organization cre-
cell biologists, immunologists and chem-
ated in 1999. Institut Pasteur, a world
ists, the centre’s research is focused on
leader
in
infectious
disease
viruses that represent a threat to public
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create HKU-PRC as a long-term
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University of Hong Kong (HKU) to
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teamed up with the prestigious
against
infectious
diseases,
HKU-PRC is a leading partner in
ur
international collaborations and
networks, such as the Institut Pasteur
existing pole of excellence in infectious
International Network, and organizes the
disease research and teaching. Equipped
Pasteur-Asia Virology courses to teach and
with a state-of-the-art research laboratory
train a small number of outstanding Asian
and an international team of virologists,
students.
Institut Pasteur, Paris
Discovery of the Plague bacteria in Hong Kong
HKU Faculty of Medicine
Founded in 1887 after Louis Pasteur, the “father of modern microbiology”, had successfully developed the vaccine against rabies. Institut
Pasteur is a non-profit private foundation dedicated to public health
worldwide, with a long history of breakthrough discoveries, such as
vaccines (diphtheria, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B) and
identification of several etiologic agents of infectious diseases
including HIV. Eight Pasteurians have been awarded Nobel prizes.
In 1894, Pasteurian Alexandre Yersin, who had trained under Louis
Pasteur, discovered in a groundbreaking seven days the bacteria
responsible for the terrifying Black Death Plague (still known after his
name as Yersinia pestis) in his mat-shed laboratory constructed in
Hong Kong Island’s Kennedy Town district.
Founded in 1910, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is the oldest
established tertiary education faculty in the Special Administrative
Region. For over a century, HKU's Faculty of Medicine has been
at the forefront of medical research. Its teams have tracked
down and identified numerous pathogens responsible for locallyemerging infectious diseases, including Influenza viruses and the
SARS coronavirus.
Antiviral target & drug discovery research programme
“ There is science and the applications of science, bound to each other
like fruit to the tree that bears it.” Louis Pasteur
Research: The need for new antivirals
SARS-CoV: The search for a vaccine
The emergence of new infectious diseases is a
In 2003/2004, the centre’s activities were part of a research-driven response
consequence of the increase in international
of the international scientific community to the SARS outbreak. We
travel, climate changes, more intensive agricul-
developed a candidate vaccine against SARS which has been successfully
tural practices and shifting demographics. As
tested in experimental animals at the US National Institutes of Health.
these factors are unlikely to change in the
The centre’s research output on SARS-CoV will foster understanding of this
foreseeable future, the international community must establish the
new human pathogen and help the international scientific community
capability to detect, contain and treat new diseases promptly in both
devise strategies against SARS and related coronavirus infections.
the developed and developing worlds. There is an overwhelming need
for effective antiviral vaccines and therapeutics to better treat existing
AIDS, Hepatitis C, Avian Influenza and Dengue Fever:
and emerging viral infections.
New therapeutics are needed
Our fundamental and applied drug research programmes are closely
Research: Our vision
linked. HKU-PRC employs state-of-the-art genomic research tools,
HKU-PRC’s research is designed to elucidate the fundamental biological
imaging and high throughput technology to identify new small
processes of the viruses which cause SARS, AIDS, Hepatitis C, Dengue
molecule inhibitors of virus replication. New molecules are identified
Fever and Avian Influenza. A better understanding of the biology of
from synthetic compound libraries and Traditional Chinese Medicine-
these viruses will reveal vulnerabilities which can be attacked through
based libraries (established by our partners at SIMM in Shanghai) with a
therapeutic invention. Our vision is to translate scientific discoveries
single goal: to bring new antiviral compounds from the research phase
into applications to benefit society.
to the clinic. Intellectual property and business development of HKUPRC's discoveries are managed by Institut Pasteur in Paris, a world
leader in technology transfer from academia to the private sector.
Understanding the virus strategy
Viruses are true parasites, needing the support of human cells to live.
Despite their microscopic size, viruses hijack and manipulate complex
International collaborations
human cellular processes to achieve their own multiplication. Infection
HKU-PRC is a leading partner in international networks and collaborations
by viruses may provoke cell suffering and death, leading to the damage
with France, Europe, China, Japan and the United States.
of entire organs and the death of the infected patient.
• Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
• Institut Pasteur Asia network (China, Cambodia, Korea, New Caledonia, Vietnam)
Our research provides answers to key questions: How does the virus
• HKU Faculty of Medicine, Hong Kong
interact with the cell, and which cell components help the virus enter?
• Shanghai Institute for Materia Medica, China
How does it assemble its individual building blocks to make a new
• European Union networks on SARS and Dengue Fever
infectious virus? Answering these questions is our scientific mission,
• National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA
which will lead to new strategies to combat viruses through vaccines
• University of Tokushima, Japan
and therapeutics.
For more information on our research programme,
please contact us at: [email protected]
Meeting new infectious challenges
Knowing our enemies to better combat them
Genomics technology
By the late 20th century, about 30 new infectious diseases had been
identified, including HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (vCJD), Nipah virus, several hemorrhagic fevers, avian flu and
SARS. In addition to human morbidity and mortality, the economic
costs of epidemics are tremendous; the 2002/2003 SARS outbreak
cost an estimated US$ 30 billion.
Viruses are true intracellular parasites. They need the cell’s
machinery to accomplish replication. To enter host cells, viruses
use surface protein projections which interact with cellular
receptors — as a key fits a lock. Greater understanding of such
interactions will lead to new, efficient techniques to block viral
entry and therefore infection.
Understanding the function of specific interactions between viral
and cellular proteins is the key step to identifying new antiviral
drugs. High throughput protein-interaction technologies are
combined with advanced biochemistry, cell biology and virology
methods to identify virus-cell interactions and characterise the
specific complex mechanisms used by viruses to hijack cellular
machinery. Interfering with these interactions with drugs can lead
to new antiviral strategies.
Institut Pasteur International Network:
10,000 staff in 29 institutes across 5 continents
“The microbe is nothing, the terrain everything” Louis Pasteur
St. Petersburg
Bruxelles
Lille
Paris
Sofia
Rome
Laval
Alger
Tunis
Bucarest
Athenes
Seoul
Teheran
Shanghai
Casablanca / Tanger
Hong Kong
Hanoi
Dakar
Niamey
Pointe-à-Pitre
Abidjan
Cayenne
Phnom Penh
Bangui
Yaounde
Nha Trang
Ho Chi Minh Ville
Antananarivo
Noum
Institut Pasteur International Research Centres
A unique organization, the Institut Pasteur International Network unites
through biological research, education and public health activities. As a
close to 10,000 staff from 29 institutions (including eight WHO Collab-
member of the International Network, the HKU-PRC’s research is
orative Centres) spread across five continents. The Network is dedicated
enriched by the data and material collected by Pasteur Institutes
to the surveillance, prevention and treatment of infectious disease
throughout Asia.
Hijacking the cells
High throughput screening (HTS)
Antiviral drugs
Cells are the “building blocks of life”. The survival of cells in the human
body is based on a delicate equilibrium of complex biological
processes. During a viral infection this equilibrium is severely
disturbed, eventually leading to virus-induced cell death. Through
close collaboration with the Platform of Dynamic Imaging of the
Institut Pasteur, HKU-PRC has access to the most advanced
imaging technology to study high-speed virus protein movement
through the cell.
High throughput and high content screening (HTS-HCS) uses robotic
technology to conduct hundreds of experiments simultaneously,
which generates a large amount of experimental data in a very short
time. HKU-PRC has successfully developed a target and drug
discovery platform to identify the cellular genes required for viral
infections and novel antiviral compounds.
Discovery of new antiviral drugs will be the product of a greatly
expanded understanding of viral biology combined with state-ofthe-art drug screening technology and original chemistry. At HKUPRC, an international and interdisciplinary team of highly qualified
molecular and cellular biologists, virologists and chemists is working
to identify new drugs from chemical libraries including Traditional
Chinese Medicine.
HTS image courtesy of Matrix Technologies.
Our commitment to education:
Pasteur-Asia Virology Courses
“Chance favors only the prepared mind” Louis Pasteur
The Pasteur-Asia Virology courses teach and train a small number of outstanding Asian students at the Master/MPhil
and early PhD level. The courses are designed as a platform of excellence where young scientists meet, discuss and
establish valuable contacts with the world’s best experts in Virology. Beyond teaching, we expect to stimulate and
strengthen collaborations within the Asian Network of Institut Pasteur and other research institutes in the region, and
give students orientation for their future careers.
Pasteur-Asia Virology Course
Meet the greatest
Croucher-Pasteur exchange programme
Co-organized by Institut Pasteur, HKU and HKU-PRC,
the 2nd Pasteur-Asia Virology Course held in July 2005
was focused on respiratory viruses. Practical courses
on state-of-the-art techniques in virus research are a
key component of the teaching programme.
During the course, selected students met the world’s
best virologists in a master class environment, and
had the rare opportunity to interact with Nobel
Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Professor
Rolf Zinkernagel.
HKU-PRC actively promotes scientific reciprocity
between Hong Kong and France through the
“Croucher-Pasteur exchange programme”, to attract
Hong Kong students to perform their PhD or
postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur or the
International Network.
1/F Dexter H.C. Man Building, 8 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Tel. : (852) 2816 8403 Fax : (852) 2872 5782 Email : [email protected]
Website: www.hkupasteur.hku.hk
Cover images:
AIDS viruses : Coloured scanning electron micrograph of a T-lymphocyte blood cell (blue) infected with Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (yellow), causative agent of AIDS. The
surface of the T-cell has a lumpy appearance with large, irregular surface protrusions. Smaller spherical structures on the cell surface are HIV virus particles budding away from the cell
membrane. The virus has infected the T-cell, and instructed the cell to reproduce many more viruses. By this viral budding the T-cell dies. Depletion of the number of T-cells in the blood is the
main reason for the destruction of the immune system in AIDS. Magnification: x6,000 at 6x7cm size. x20,000 at 8x10". NIBSC / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY.
Antiviral molecule : Stavudine (d4T, Zerit®) is an oral medication used for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. It is in a class of drugs called reverse
transcriptase inhibitors. Stavudine is a success story of drug discovery in academia. Stavudine was first marketed in 1994, offering a new therapeutic solution for AIDS patients.