Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology

A Tripartite Alliance Forged to Harness the Power of Chemical and Biomedical Science

Improving survival outcomes in cancer patients is the ultimate goal for every treatment. But to make it a reality, discovery of new medicines and modalities for anti-cancer treatments will be required. These are the dual challenges researchers from around the world working at the Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology are undertaking.

Drawing on world-class talents from both the East and the West, a tripartite alliance has been forged among The University of Hong Kong (HKU), Peking University (PKU) and Imperial College London (ICL) to work with local research institutes to set forth on a journey to conduct impactful research in drug discovery and biomedical diagnostics using advanced synthetic chemistry and chemical biology.

A vision on synthetic chemistry and chemical biology for innovative medicines.

Well-equipped laboratories for drug discovery and synthesis.

State-of-the-art instrumentation for health technologies.

The Laboratory aims to integrate chemical science and biomedical science to develop new molecular medicines and diagnostic tools for the analysis and treatment of human diseases, in particular, cancer. New chemotherapeutic agents with advanced selective targeting of cancer cells and relatively non-toxic natural product compounds derived from traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of drug-resistant and metastatic cancers will be evaluated and used in precision and personalised oncology and immuno-oncology as future cancer treatments.

Four interdisciplinary programmes will be conducted in the Laboratory:

• Synthetic Chemistry
• Chemical Biology of Natural Products and Chinese Medicine
• Metal Anti-cancer Medicine, Diagnostics and Theranostics
• Multi-Omics and Innovative Analytical Technologies

The Laboratory plans to build strategic collaborations with international and national institutes and the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the Greater Bay Area, to co-develop innovative patentable drug leads and medical diagnostic probes. It also plans to attract a critical mass of talents who share a passion for research and desire to nurture the next-generation of young scientists for interactive collaboration and dialogue between academics and industries in Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom.