AstraZeneca Hong Kong and HKUST Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Advance Life Sciences and Healthcare Innovation
Top left to right: General Manager of AstraZeneca Hong Kong and Macau Ms. Shan Wu; President of HKUST and The Morningside Professor of Life Science Prof. Nancy Ip Bottom left to right: Head of Medical Affairs, BioPharmaceuticals Rare Disease of AstraZeneca Hong Kong Mr. Tin Hung Wong; Vice-President for Research and Development at HKUST Prof. Tim Cheng
A collaboration harnessing AI in life sciences to develop new therapies for cancer and metabolic disorders
Hong Kong, 13 June 2025 - AstraZeneca Hong Kong (AstraZeneca) and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build on their long-standing partnership, aiming to accelerate research and development (R&D) and drive innovation in the city’s life sciences ecosystem. The signing ceremony was held at the HKUST Unicorn Day 2025, an occasion where entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders come together for technological knowledge exchange and collaboration.
Witnessed by General Manager of AstraZeneca Hong Kong and Macau Ms. Shan Wu, and President of HKUST and the Morningside Professor of Life Science, Prof. Nancy Ip, the MoU was officially signed by Head of Medical Affairs, BioPharmaceuticals & Rare Disease of AstraZeneca Hong Kong Mr. Tin Hung Wong, and Vice-President for Research and Development at HKUST, Prof. Tim Cheng.
This collaboration creates a powerful framework for facilitating research and development opportunities in medicine, life sciences, and healthcare, eventually translating scientific discovery into tangible medical advancements.
Another central focus of the partnership will be to apply cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to the life sciences domain, by uniting AstraZeneca's profound clinical expertise with HKUST's pioneering work in computational biology. With the help of cutting-edge technologies, medical diagnostics and pathological image analysis could be enhanced, which would be a huge driving force to optimize precision treatment, generate high quality real-world evidence, and improve healthcare delivery.
This synergy is pivotal to derive actionable insights from complex multi-omics and clinical data sets, ultimately developing effective treatment strategies for major metabolic disorders, with a specific emphasis on respiratory, cardiovascular, and rental disorders including atherosclerosis, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and diabetic nephropathy.
Building on their established collaboration, the partners will pioneer new therapeutic approaches in precision cancer treatment, covering the full spectrum from screening and molecular diagnostics to monitoring. This focus extends to developing innovative solutions for rare diseases, aiming to discover novel targets, pathways, and drug resistance mechanisms.
Ms. Shan Wu, General Manager of AstraZeneca Hong Kong and Macau, said, “We are thrilled to build upon our long-standing partnership with HKUST to push the boundaries of life science. Building on years of joint research, we will apply AI and machine learning to develop novel strategies for major metabolic disorders with the aim to advance diagnostic accuracy, refine personalized therapies, and elevate the overall standard of patient care, while advancing our collaboration in cancer and rare diseases research. This powerful synergy is crucial for creating new patient benefits and will pave the way for elevating Hong Kong’s healthcare R&D ecosystem to new heights.”
Prof. Nancy Ip, President of HKUST and the Morningside Professor of Life Science, stated, “We are pleased to solidify our strong partnership with AstraZeneca through this MoU, which marks a significant milestone in translating our frontier research into real-world impact. This collaboration empowers our researchers to apply pioneering work in AI and machine learning to solve critical health challenges, accelerating the journey from lab to clinic. Moreover, it advances our vision to drive the integration of AI and healthcare, foster innovative education, and conduct cutting-edge medical research that will propel Hong Kong’s development into a world-class international health and medical innovation hub.”