HKUST partners with Harvard Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine, and University College London.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) together with Boston Children’s Hospital – a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital (Harvard), the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford), and University College London (UCL) have partnered to engage in advanced translational neuroscience research.
The MoU was signed on 16 January 2019, establishing the new Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Hong Kong Science Park joining the Health@InnoHK research cluster program.
The Center will provide a synergistic platform for scientists from HKUST, Harvard, Stanford and UCL to consolidate their strengths and expertise, build knowledge and understanding across multiple disciplines through concerted effort, and engage in research with significant societal impact.
Foundational work at the Center will focus on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease and one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the elderly. This incurable disease, which afflicts almost 47 million people worldwide, is rapidly increasing due to ageing population worldwide, and is projected to reach 131.5 million by 2050. With one of the longest life expectancies in the world, Hong Kong faces an onslaught of AD cases, especially since 39 percent of the population will be over the age of 65 by 2050.
Three major inter-related research programs will be initiated with the goals of developing AD biomarkers to better treat the disease and develop tools for early diagnosis.
The Center’s activities will establish a collaborative scientific hub for neurodegenerative disease research in Hong Kong. [APBN]