In conjunction with World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day, organised by the World Health Organisation and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), a research team from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has highlighted recent advances in understanding and managing COPD, particularly in relation to its exacerbations. The key findings indicate that patients’ risk profiles can be assessed by measuring blood eosinophil counts at various time points and the isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in sputum, which can facilitate personalised treatment.

A research team led by the Department of Clinical Oncology, Centre of Cancer Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has identified a critical factor contributing to the failure of liver cancer immunotherapy. The study discovered that the gut bacterium Phocaeicola vulgatus can disrupt the immune system, leading to resistance to immunotherapy in some liver cancer patients. This research reveals the significant impact of gut microbiota on cancer treatment, and proposes ‘microbiome modulation therapy’, which involves modifying gut microecology or supplementing with key metabolites to enhance the effectiveness of liver cancer immunotherapy. The findings, published in the international journal Cell Reports Medicine, offer a novel direction for improving immunotherapy efficacy.

As cities around the world grapple with escalating mental health challenges, researchers from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have pinpointed the ideal levels of urban greenness that maximise psychological well-being. Published in Nature Cities, HKU’s latest study synthesises four decades of global evidence to demonstrate a curvilinear—inverted-U—dose-response relationship, challenging the long-held assumption “greener is always better.”

Patients with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, often require long-term use of antipsychotic medications. Some of these drugs, however, can pose potential risks, such as elevated prolactin levels and compromised immune function. Previous studies have relied mostly on small or single-centre data, making it difficult to accurately assess the true incidence of rare adverse effects. Researchers from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), through multidisciplinary collaboration and rigorous epidemiological methods, leveraged territory-wide data from the Hospital Authority to conduct two internationally impactful studies. The findings were published in leading psychiatric journals World Psychiatry and The Lancet Psychiatry. These discoveries provide solid evidence for drug regulation and clinical practice and establish Hong Kong as a global leader in big data research on psychiatric medication safety.

A clinical oncology research team at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), has developed an innovative big data platform, called the ‘Cancer Immunology Data Engine’ (CIDE). This state-of-the-art platform integrates clinical outcomes from 5,957 cancer patients worldwide who received immunotherapy, along with comprehensive multi-omics datasets covering 17 cancer types and comprising 8,575 tumour samples. CIDE represents the most extensive database for tumour immunotherapy available to date. Currently publicly accessible via the NCI website (https://cide.ccr.cancer.gov/), the platform enables researchers worldwide to explore and analyse clinical trial data in depth, thereby accelerating advances in cancer immunotherapy research.