InnoHK: Using deep data to tackle global public health problems
Professor Stephen Simpson (left), Professor Jean Yang and Professor Eddie Holmes (right) will lead the InnoHK Sydney hub.
A global collaboration to apply data science and artificial-intelligence methods to solve intractable problems in public health was launched聽today simultaneously in Sydney and Hong Kong. The Sydney hub was established thanks to $HK17 million ($3 million) in funding by聽InnoHK,聽a major initiative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.
The hub is part of the聽, a joint project led by the University of Hong Kong in collaboration with the University of Sydney, University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Sydney hub launched today is led by聽Professor Jean Yang聽in the School of Mathematics and Statistics with the Director of the Charles Perkins Centre,聽Professor Stephen Simpson, and聽Professor Eddie Holmes. Professor Holmes聽was last week awarded the聽Prime Minister鈥檚 Prize for Science聽for his work on emerging viral pathogens, including SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans.
The local聽Sydney聽hub is part of a global effort to build the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health (D24H) under the聽聽to collate and curate massive, unique data resources and develop novel, deep, frontier analytics in protecting global public health and improving individual health care through precision medicine.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) Professor Kathy Belov.
Professor Kathy聽Belov,聽University of Sydney聽Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement, said: 鈥淚t is wonderful to see this project become a reality. Three years ago,聽, the former Global Vice-President at the University of Hong Kong, came to Australia for our first Sydney Summit, where we raised the possibility of a Sydney hub for聽InnoHK.
鈥淕iven everything that has happened in the world since the onset of COVID-19, what a prescient, far-sighted idea that was.鈥�
Professor Yang will focus on research using biomedical data and the emerging speciality of聽omic-based bioinformatics, in which she is a world leader.
Omics-science, is the collective study of biological markers, including genomics,聽proteomics聽and metabolomics, that are used to characterise molecules to assist in understanding the structure, function and dynamics of an organism.
She will lead a team of interdisciplinary scientists in collaboration with聽聽at the University of Hong Kong to create聽tools聽to process biomedical data and novel computational approaches to solve major challenges in risk prediction聽for聽infectious diseases.
Professor Yang said: 鈥淭o realise the potential of multi-omics data, this project will bring together global expertise to develop innovative data science approaches to identify robust biomarkers for global health risk prediction.鈥�
Professor Yang will work closely with Professor Simpson to translate discoveries emerging from omics-science into improved health outcomes.聽聽
Professor Simpson said: 鈥淣utrition, physical activity and sleep are powerful drivers of physiological systems, with profound impacts on health and wellbeing. Understanding system-wide omics responses to diet, exercise and sleep is a priority at the Charles Perkins Centre and offers huge potential both to聽improve health in human populations and with precision in individuals.鈥�
Professor Holmes will聽work聽on two projects, collaborating with聽聽at the University of Hong Kong, to develop techniques in meta-genomics, a process that simultaneously sequences the genetic material of all organisms in a biological sample.
The project will help identify microbes in animals and humans that could lead to disease outbreaks and develop software that can quickly analyse that data.
鈥淢eta-genomics is hugely powerful, but it produces a huge amount of data. This project will allow us to develop novel approached to sort through the data to produce meaningful information quickly and accurately to identify newly emerging pathogens,鈥澛燩rofessor Holmes said.
The University of Sydney hub聽researchers are:
- Professor Jean Yang,聽School of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science.
- Professor Edward Holmes聽FRS, Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases, Charles Perkins Centre and the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
- Professor Stephen Simpson FRS, Academic Director, Charles Perkins Centre, who is contributing his expertise in translation of basic scientific discoveries to healthcare.
- Associate Professor聽Jinman聽Kim,聽School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, who is contributing his expertise in healthcare imaging AI.
- Dr Ellis Patrick,聽School of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science
- Dr Garth聽Tarr, School of Mathematics聽and聽Statistics, Faculty of Science
- 顿谤听笔别苍驳测颈听驰补苍驳, School of Mathematics聽and聽Statistics, Faculty of Science