CUHK Research: Changing the world

and the infrastructure and funding needed to complete it is already well-established. To counter the viruses, which can replicate and mutate frequently and unpredictably, the professor has contributed to dozens of research papers spanning epidemiology to computational and structural biology in top journals such as the British Medical Journal , Lancet Microbe , and Nature Catalysis . Over the years, his team has contributed to understanding the mechanistic basis for infectious diseases caused by RNA viruses, such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2. In particular, his team discovered the first strain of influenza that was mutation-defective: “We showed that this virus can fail to have the ability to generate mutations that are advantageous to the virus adapting to the environment, leading to a reduced ability to infect mice.” These developments are essential in using mutagenesis to develop antivirals that can treat severe COVID-19 cases. As for the diagnostics of infectious diseases, Professor Cheung has contributed to developing and evaluating methods to detect RNA viruses in wild birds, which helps risk-assess viruses circulating in the wild to assess how clinical diagnostics can be improved for sensitivity and accuracy. His research on viruses has also been spun into practical uses, particularly in antiviral drugs and vaccines. Most significantly, he and his team published a paper in April 2022 on the efficacy of different vaccines worldwide which garnered significant attention. They discovered that “a three-dose mRNA regiment seems to be the most effective in preventing COVID-19 infections”, especially for high-risk populations, and that a booster shot would help prevent COVID infections and variants regardless of whether the shots used differed. As the Omicron variant spread worldwide, the paper provided valuable information to governments on booster jabs. Professor Cheung’s multidisciplinary research has undoubtedly contributed to the understanding and preventing of infectious diseases caused by deadly viruses. Despite this recognition, Professor Cheung continues to explore new ways of tackling the problem of ever-mutating viruses. “We need to employ a more multidisciplinary approach: one of the main reasons I joined CUHK was how it fostered such effective collaborations among people of different expertise.” His team has developed technologies that help fight the spread of epidemics of infectious diseases, from mapping out how RNA viruses could unconventionally “jump” from one region of genomes to another to using complex statistical approaches in figuring out the optimal use of vaccines. The extraordinary spread of the COVID-19 virus has impressed on him the necessity of keeping up with the times. For Professor Cheung, future outbreaks can be prevented only by such continual development. Understanding the basis for virus evolution and transmissions can help us understand howwe control and prevent future pandemics caused by these viruses. 71