For release 19 June 1998
Sino-German Partnership Creates
New Biotechnology Laboratory at
HKUST
A special laboratory equipped with powerful tools for developing a new generation of biosensors and other biomolecular devices was inaugurated on 15 June at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Over the next ten to twenty years, the use of custom-designed sensors to detect biochemical changes at the molecular and submolecular levels is expected to have far-reaching consequences in medical, environmental and industrial applications.
The new laboratory, called SiGNAL, or the Sino-German
Nano-Analytical Lab, was opened by Prof Chia-Wei Woo, President of HKUST, and Mr Wolfgang Gerz, German Consul-General in Hong Kong. The laboratory is a key component of the German Center in HKUST's Europe Institute.
At SiGNAL, German and Chinese academic and industrial partners will work together to develop innovative biosensors for use in Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and the Asia-Pacific region. Already in development are sensors for monitoring organic pollution in seawater and the physical training of athletes.
Quick and reliable sensors to detect the onset of a heart attack, the presence of dangerous bacteria such as E.coli and Salmonella or the use of illicit drugs are also being developed.
The new laboratory is housed in HKUST's Department of Chemistry and is led by Prof Reinhard Renneberg, former head of the
Department of Immunosensors at the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical and Biosensors in Muenster, Germany.
"We have the finest state-of-the-art equipment and very strong
partners bringing real strength to our research," says Prof Renneberg. The German companies SensLab Ltd (Leipzig), Dr Lange Ltd (Berlin and Duesseldorf), EKF Industry Electronics (Magdeburg) and XanTec (Muenster) are among the world's leaders in the development of innovative biosensors. They will collaborate at SiGNAL with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science's Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry and Wuhan Institute of Virology, as
well as from the Shanghai Institute of Industrial Microbiology. An innovative Hong Kong biotech company, HK Won-Sheng Biological Engineering Ltd, will also participate.
Also attending the inauguration were German academic partners from University of Potsdam and Technical University of Berlin, together with scientists from HKUST's Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biology, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Note to Editors:
Direct enquiries to Mr King Cheng of the Public Affairs Office at 2358-6305 or email [email protected].
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