2025/26研资局研究学者计划得奖者 赛马会公共卫生及基层医疗学院
王海天教授
赛马会公共卫生及基层医疗学院
香港中文大学
Biography
(只提供英文版)
- Associate Professor in JC School of Public Health and Primary Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Research focuses on bioinformatics and statistical genetics, with an emphasis on deciphering genomic patterns in viruses and humans to advance understanding of disease mechanisms and immunology
- RFS project — aims to develop a therapeutic HPV vaccine candidate to treat cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) caused by HPV infections, using a computational platform that integrates novel technologies invented by the research team. The objectives of this project include characterizing genomic variations of common HPV types in China, developing computational methods for T-cell epitope prediction to design epitope-enriched vaccine antigens, and optimizing antigen sequences using the research team’s proprietary protein codon optimization (PCO) technology, which has higher potency than existing approaches, to generate the final candidate. Beyond this project, the platform it establishes could also be applied to design antigens for other virus-mediated diseases and holds significant translational potential in the pharmaceutical industry. With collaborative efforts, the outcomes of this project will facilitate future innovative vaccine development in Hong Kong.
- Awards and Honours:
- RGC Research Fellow (2025)
Project Title
(只提供英文版)
- Integrated Computational Platform for Antigen Design of Therapeutic Vaccines for HPV-mediated Cervical Cancer
赞词
王海天教授现为香港中文大学赛马会公共卫生及基层医疗学院副教授，荣获研资局研究学者奖项，获奖项目为「运用生物计算平台设计可治疗HPV感染和宫颈瘤样病变的疫苗抗原」。
王教授的研究专注于生物信息学与统计遗传学，着重于解密病毒和人类的基因组变异形式，以推进对疾病机制与免疫学的理解。她的方法学桥接基因组的新发现与实际转化应用，从而促进疫苗开发与精准医学的发展。她的研究主题包括病毒演化预测、疾病预测、病毒与人类遗传流行病学，以及疫苗抗原优化的方法。
目前HPV疫苗主要用于预防感染。本项目中，研究团队旨在综合多种创新技术、建立一套生物计算平台，设计出可以治疗HPV感染和宫颈上皮内瘤样病变的疫苗抗原。项目的目标包括对中国常见的HPV病毒类型进行基因分析、开发预测T细胞抗原表位的计算方法以设计出能有效引起免疫反应的抗原，以及利用团队自主研发、性能比现有方法更强的PCO密码子优化专利算法制作出候选疫苗抗原序列。通过多方合作，计算平台将来亦可用于设计HPV以外的其他病毒抗原，有潜力转化至更多医药行业的项目，将促进香港未来的疫苗研发。
