Healthy Human Global Project - Hong Kong
(HHGP-Hong Kong)
The complexity of individual immune responses is such that it has not yet been possible to define the genetic and environmental parameters that determine either a healthy immune system or its natural occurring variability. Yet, knowledge of these parameters is essential to establish personalized and precision medical care.
The HHGP-Hong Kong is based on the success of the Milieu Intérieur consortium which was established by the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2011. We are applying this technological platform to develop an Immune Report Card that will provide a personalized patient management strategy that takes into account individual genetics, previous infection history, resident microbiota, as well as personal lifestyle and environmental factors to define immune ‘health.
KEY PROJECTS
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Establishment of a healthy reference population cohort and technological transfer of a standardized immunophenotyping platform;
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Assessing the genetic and environmental determinants of immune response variation from the healthy donor cohort and data analysis and integration (link with Program 2);
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Application of the HHGP-Hong Kong approach for management of public health challenges.
DELIVERABLES
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Transfer of technological know-how from Institut Pasteur to establish a standardized immunomonitoring platform;
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Establishment of healthy reference Asian populations for systems immunology studies;
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Development of new biomarker discovery tools new insights into human responses to adjuvants;
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Creation of a nucleating space for global sharing of technology, methods, expertise, resources and data to accelerate access to innovations in Hong Kong and across the region;
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Creation of technology-based startups for commercialization and translation into global healthcare solutions;
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Training opportunities for young scientists and educators;
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Proof of concept studies to establish an Immune Report Card for personalized medicine monitoring and demonstrate its public health value for vaccine response monitoring (link with Program 2) and age associated immune dysfunction.
KEY RESEARCH STAFF IN THE TEAM
The PI and Co-PIs are highly trained immunologists with high impact publications in recent years. A key advantage of this proposal is that it leverages a highly multi-disciplinary expertise, developed during the previous 7 years at IP, and validated through several clinical studies in viral and bacterial infection, healthy aging, auto-immunity, therapeutic and vaccination responses.
This solid foundation will allow us to implement an optimal HHGP-Hong Kong platform for precision medicine strategies and applications with minimal delay.
Darragh Duffy (IP) is the co-coordinator (with Lluis Quintana-Murci) of the Milieu Interieur consortium and leads many of the clinical studies.
James Di Santo (IP) is one of the leading scientists in the field of human innate immunity.
Milena Hasan (IP) is the Senior Scientist who manages the Translational Research Platform (core platform for Milieu Interieur) which has validated a number of the assays that will be used in the HHGP-Hong Kong.
Additional staff from IP (RAP, Scientific and Research Officers) will be deployed to support the project and train locally recruited personnel.
Michael Y NI (HKU) is a public health physician and the Program Director for the FAMILY Cohort, a large population-based cohort study in Hong Kong.
Roberto Bruzzone (HKU-PRP) studies host-pathogen interactions.
Sophie A Valkenburg (HKU-PRP) is an immunologist who studies adaptive immunity in mice/humans.
Hein Min Tun (HKU-PRP) is a public health veterinarian who studies the role of animal and human microbiome in health and disease.