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Institut Pasteur Korea discusses strategies to expand cooperation with the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole

2023-03-22

Institut Pasteur Korea discusses strategies to expand cooperation with the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole


Dr. Dimitri Lavillette, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Institut Pasteur Korea, was invited to give a seminar and visit HKU-Pasteur Research pole last week.



Dr. Lavillette met with Prof. Leo Poon, Director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, member of the Coronavirus Study Group under the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and expert in various WHO Working Groups for emerging viruses. They discuss research collaboration and joint research initiatives between the two institutions on infectious disease response and preparedness in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as strategies to expand exchanges using the Pasteur Network. He also met with Prof. Malik Peiris, a world leader in respiratory virus research, Chair of Virology at the School of Public Health, director of the WHO Influenza Reference Laboratory and the WHO SARS-CoV-2 reference laboratory at The University of Hong Kong. The scientific discussions on their latest results with Prof. Hui-Ling Yen and Prof Michael Chan from the Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, and with Dr Sooksan Wong, Dr Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran and Dr Mark Zanin from the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, highlighted potential collaboration directions. In addition, Dr. Dimitri Lavillette gave a seminar on neutralizing antibody development against SARS-CoV-2.




 

He visited also the Center for Immunology & Infection (C2i), collaboratively established by LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong and the Institut Pasteur, to learn about its platforms specialized in biomarkers, vaccines, and drug candidates development. A particular focus of the discussion with Dr Tommy Lam, an expert in epidemiology of infectious diseases concerned the preparedness program against future arbovirus outbreaks in connection with global warming.