5 Microbial Solution for Microplastic Pollution Most microplastics are toxic and endanger aquatic ecosystems. More alarmingly, the pollutants eventually make their way into human bodies via the food chain. Scientists worldwide have not yet found an effective and sustainable way to capture and remove these tiny particles from water, and doing so remains a formidable challenge. Lately, our researchers have developed a viable solution with innovative approach to remove microplastics from water using bacteria. The team has genetically modified pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium known to produce robust biofilms, which help remove microplastics from water. The bacteria can form sticky biofilms that trap microplastics, making them easier to collect and recycle. This approach provides a basis for sustainably reducing microplastics in the aquatic environment and has the potential to be widely applied in wastewater treatment plants. The research findings have been published in Chemical Engineering Journal, and have attracted widespread attention at the 2021 British Society of Microbiology Annual Conference. New Mediums for Developing Anti-cancer Drugs The discovery of arginase and flavonoid dimer as potent anti-cancer drugs has opened up a variety of cancer treatment applications, including the reversing of cancer drug resistance, the development of oral anti-cancer drugs as well as effective brain cancer, liver cancer and leukaemia treatments. Our anti-cancer applications of arginase and flavonoid dimer, already proven safe in animal studies, have won awards and been licensed to our industry partners for further clinical trials. In particular, liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Hong Kong associated with a high mortality rate. Our researchers identified markers and signalling pathways of liver cancer stem cells to combat liver cancer. Cancer stem cells are regarded as the root of tumour development. They are responsible for tumour initiation, recurrence and chemoresistance. Targeting liver cancer stem cells by suppressing their drug resistance properties is a promising treatment approach to overcome drug resistance. The use of targeted antibody therapy against cancer stem cells in combination with currently available immunotherapy may be a promising strategy against liver cancer. An Innovative Drug Discovery Path: From Molecular Antimicrobial Resistance to Novel Antibiotic Development Making Biofuels Viable Biodegradable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly, biofuels are a highly promising renewable energy source. However, first and second-generation biofuels have limitations. For example, the liquid biodiesel catalysts traditionally used in biofuel production typically generate huge amounts of wastewater in the final product purification step. Such limitations have spurred increasing interest in using algae as a more effective biofuel than conventional sources such as corn. We have established a highly efficient mobile that collects algal biomass from freshwater for biodiesel production. We have also developed a catalyst to raise biodiesel industry standards of practice to a more sustainable, more environmentally friendly level. Operating at low temperatures and pressure, and thus requiring less energy, our newly developed catalyst is highly compatible with low-grade unrefined feedstock through a one-step simultaneous esterification and transesterification reaction. This technology is ready for commercialisation and knowledge transfer. Disconnection between clinical research and basic science is a critical issue in current research on bacterial antimicrobial resistance. To combat this problem, our research programmes utilise multidisciplinary approaches that interface clinical study and basic science. We conduct comprehensive epidemiological studies on bacterial pathogens recovered from animals, food samples and clinical settings to obtain first-hand, high-resolution epidemiological data and delineate the origins and transmission dynamics of multi-drug resistant (MDR) organisms. Our unique study programme enables us to accurately evaluate the strengths and limitations of various methodologies in MDR investigations.
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