• Grant & Fund
• Expressions Summer 2025

From Molecules to Targeted Medicines

Faculty leads international symposium to advance patient-specific cancer treatments

Professor Gao Zhang is awarded a Croucher Foundation grant of HKD 518,000

Thanks to a Croucher Foundation grant of HKD 518,000 awarded to Professor Gao Zhang, Associate Professor in Applied Oral Sciences and Community Dental Care, the HKU Faculty of Dentistry is advancing global efforts in one of medicine’s most dynamic frontiers: precision oncology. The Faculty is using the grant to convene a 3-day international symposium that will unite researchers, scholars, data specialists, and clinicians in improving cancer therapy by tailoring treatments to each patient’s distinct genetic and molecular profile.

Organised as an educational course offered by the Croucher Advanced Study Institute, the symposium—titled “Precision Medicine in Oncology: Bridging Laboratory Discoveries and Clinical Innovations”—will be held at HKU on 15–17 October 2025.

In addition to multiple panel discussions and research poster presentations, invited experts will deliver a series of in-depth seminars on translating scientific breakthroughs in precision oncology into clinical practice. The Faculty hopes the event will foster interdisciplinary networking across academia, healthcare, and industry to spark cutting-edge research initiatives and promote clinical adoption of personalised cancer treatments.

“This meeting will serve as a catalyst for new international research collaborations, and it will inspire innovative strategies for tackling some of the most pressing challenges in oncology. Our goal is to turn groundbreaking research into real-world solutions that improve patient outcomes,” explained Professor Zhang, who is the event director. “I’m deeply grateful to the Croucher Foundation for their generous support, and to the invited speakers, my esteemed colleagues, and dedicated team members whose contributions have been instrumental to this initiative.”

Participants will learn about innovations in areas such as early cancer detection, immunotherapy, minimally invasive surgical approaches, and strategies for overcoming drug resistance. There will also be sessions on bioinformatics, computational biology, and analysis of “omics” big data. A highlight will be the exploration of the role of artificial intelligence in accelerating cancer biomarker discovery and designing targeted therapeutics.

The symposium promises to go far beyond academic exchange, by driving progress and meaningfully contributing to the global shift towards establishing precision oncology as the new standard in cancer care.