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Translational research projects receive funding from RAISe+

31 May 2024

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Professor Alex Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor (centre), together with Professor Terence Lau, Interim Chief Innovation Officer (left), and Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Associate Vice-President (Clinical Chinese Medicine) and Director of the Centre for Chinese Herbal Medicine Drug Development (right), who lead the two projects which have been awarded funding from the RAISe+ Scheme.
Professor Alex Wai (3rd right, back row), Professor Terence Lau (5th left, back row), Professor Bian Zhaoxiang (1st right, back row), together with researchers and collaborators.

Two translational research projects of HKBU have been awarded funding from the Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus (RAISe+) Scheme under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR Government.

One of the HKBU awarded projects, Advanced Point-of-care Molecular Systems for Clinical and Non-Clinical Applications, is led by Professor Terence Lau, Interim Chief Innovation Officer of HKBU. It is an innovative and comprehensive diagnostic system with a transformational impact. The system can achieve fast, accurate, and fully automated detection of more than 40 targets, allowing timely identification of disease-causing pathogens in an hour. It can eventually make diagnostic testing services more popular, protect people from the threat of infectious diseases, and safeguard public health.

Another awarded project, led by Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Associate Vice-President (Clinical Chinese Medicine) and Director of the Centre for Chinese Herbal Medicine Drug Development, focuses on a new Chinese herbal medicine called CDD-2101 for treating functional constipation in the elderly. It was developed by combining a traditional Chinese herbal formulation and advanced technologies, with research and manufacturing conducted in compliance with international standards. The Investigational New Drug Application has been successfully submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration in 2023 and has been granted authorisation to conduct a phase I clinical trial of the new drug in the US. The project will further support the clinical trial development to make the drug available to all patients in need.

Professor Alex Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor, says: “We welcome the results of the RAISe+ Scheme and are thrilled that two HKBU projects were being selected for funding support. Securing funding from the Scheme exemplifies the University’s commitment to advancing cutting-edge research and translating it into applications that directly benefit society. This achievement underscores the University’s dedication to driving innovations in Health and Drug Discovery, one of our key research clusters.”

Launched in October 2023, the RAISe+ Scheme aims to unleash the potential of local universities in the transformation and commercialisation of research and development outcomes, and facilitate relevant collaboration among the Government, industries, universities, and research sectors.