HKUST Annual Report 2018-19

25 HKUST THOUSANDS MORE OCEAN MICROBIAL SPECIES FOUND Prof. QIAN Peiyuan (Ocean Science) and his fellow researchers have found more than 7,000 new microbial species, enhancing understanding of ocean biodiversity. Acidobacteria, a natural medicinal phylum, was among the microbes identified, the first time this species had been found outside terrestrial soils. The phylum has previously been used for developing novel antibiotics and anti-tumor drugs due to a high level of biosynthetic gene clusters. Acidobacteria is also the first ocean species found to contain the CRISPR gene-editing system. The research appeared in Nature Communications . BRAIN CANCER THERAPY BOOST A research team led by Prof. WANG Jiguang (Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Life Science) has identified how secondary glioblastoma, a rare and deadly brain cancer, can progress from its less lethal form. The finding has provided a novel pathway to precision diagnosis and a therapeutic lead, which could result in a new treatment for chemo-resistant patients. Using a combination of genomic data from patients and a specially designed computational model, the scientists found METex14 mutations at the MET oncogene to be behind the disease’s aggressive progression. Collaborators in Beijing collected most of the initial samples and identified drug molecule PLB-1001 to selectively target the tumors in clinical trials. CONTINUUM THEORY ADVANCE Continuum theories for grain boundary motion in crystalline materials incorporating the underlying structures of topological line defects (dislocations and disconnections) have been developed by Prof. XIANG Yang (Mathematics). These theories successfully explain experimental observations and atomistic simulations related to the development of novel materials in microstructural engineering. Rigorous convergence proof from atomistic models of the continuum theories was also obtained. The research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Physical Review Letters, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, and Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.