The Croucher Foundation granted the Croucher Innovation Award 2019 to Dr Kwan Ting Chow for her excellent scientific research achievement. Due to COVID-19, the Croucher Awards Presentation Ceremony was postponed until this year and was held at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong on 8 December 2021 to present awards to the recipients of the Croucher Innovation Awards 2019–2021 and Croucher Senior Fellowships 2020–2021.
Dr Chow’s research focuses on understanding how the immune system fights cancer, with the goal of designing new generations of cancer immunotherapy. Many cancer types are currently incurable, and existing therapies often have toxic side effects. Immunotherapy is a new strategy that stimulates the body’s own defense mechanisms to eliminate cancer, thus reducing toxicity with the potential of targeting a wide variety of cancer types, including those for which no treatment is currently available. Focusing on innate immune cells that initiate and shape an immune response, Dr Chow maps and dissects the molecular pathways, gene regulatory networks, and cell-cell interactions that modulate anti-cancer immunity. The ultimate goal of the lab is to develop vaccines and targeted therapies that harness the natural ability of our immune system to fight cancer.
The Croucher Innovation Awards aim to identify a small number of exceptionally talented scientists working at an internationally competitive level and to offer substantial support to these “rising stars” at a formative stage in their careers. Each award carries a value of up to HK$5,000,000 over 5 years for research expenses of the award winner. The Awards are designed to enable recipients to pursue their own scientific, intellectual and professional inclinations, to advance their expertise, to engage in bold new work, and to contribute to the development of education and research in Hong Kong.
For more about her profile and the Crouch Innovation Award, please visit Dr Chow’s staff profile webpage and the website of Croucher Foundation.
Source: Croucher Foundation