Prof Paul Schimmel, winner of the “Most Entrepreneurial Scientist of USA” award and a Visiting Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has cast his vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s future in life science research as well as in the development of protein therapeutics.
To substantiate his optimism for Hong Kong, Prof Schimmel founded a biotech company in Hong Kong last year with a laboratory at HKUST. With the financial support of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR Government, the company has discovered three splice variants of genes and this discovery promises to lead to brand news therapeutics for diabetes, tumors and blood-related diseases.
“With the support of the Innovation and Technology Commission for our cutting edge research in Hong Kong through an academy-industry grant, we are optimistic that in several years’ time Hong Kong will make significant headway not only in life science research and commercialization, but also in the development of biotechnology leaders,” said Prof Schimmel.
“We are delighted that our short presence in Hong Kong has already led to the discovery of new splice variants in genes. Some of these have great potential as novel biotherapeutics,” he added.
Prof Paul Schimmel earned his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1966, and for the next three decades had been on the MIT faculty until 1997, when he joined the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute. Among his numerous honors was the Technopolicy Network and Science Alliance (The Hague) Award for Most Entrepreneurial Scientist of the United States in 2007.
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