2025/26研資局研究學者計劃得獎者 賽馬會公共衞生及基層醫療學院
王海天教授
賽馬會公共衞生及基層醫療學院
香港中文大學
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
讚詞
王海天教授現爲香港中文大學賽馬會公共衞生及基層醫療學院副教授，榮獲研資局研究學者獎項，獲獎項目爲「運用生物計算平台設計可治療HPV感染和宮頸瘤樣病變的疫苗抗原」。
王教授的研究專注於生物信息學與統計遺傳學，著重於解密病毒和人類的基因組變異形式，以推進對疾病機制與免疫學的理解。她的方法學橋接基因組的新發現與實際轉化應用，從而促進疫苗開發與精準醫學的發展。她的研究主題包括病毒演化預測、疾病預測、病毒與人類遺傳流行病學，以及疫苗抗原優化的方法。
目前HPV疫苗主要用於預防感染。本項目中，研究團隊旨在綜合多種創新技術、建立一套生物計算平台，設計出可以治療HPV感染和宮頸上皮內瘤樣病變的疫苗抗原。項目的目標包括對中國常見的HPV病毒類型進行基因分析、開發預測T細胞抗原表位的計算方法以設計出能有效引起免疫反應的抗原，以及利用團隊自主研發、性能比現有方法更強的PCO密碼子優化專利算法製作出候選疫苗抗原序列。通過多方合作，計算平台將來亦可用於設計HPV以外的其他病毒抗原，有潛力轉化至更多醫藥行業的項目，將促進香港未來的疫苗研發。
