Prof. CHENG Sze Lok Alfred Principal Investigator

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Biography

Alfred Cheng is a Professor of the School of Biomedical Sciences and Assistant Dean in Research of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He completed his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Prof. Joseph Sung at CUHK and his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Tim Huang at The Ohio State University. His research aims at advancing the basic understanding and precision immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma. His multi-disciplinary collaborative team has employed the cutting-edge single-cell multi-omics and AI innovation to understand tumor adaptation to immune-checkpoint blockade and identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms of immunotherapeutic resistance. His recent works on the development of effective and durable combination immunotherapies have been published and highlighted in top journals of the field such as Gut, Journal of Hepatology, and Science Translational Medicine. He is the recipient of the Most Promising Young Investigator Award by the HK Government (2014) and CUHK (2015, 2019), and the 10th HMRF Anniversary Award in Breakthrough Research by the Food and Health Bureau of HK Government (2021).

CUHK Employment

• Assistant Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine
• Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences
• Chief, Cancer Biology and Experimental Therapeutics Theme, School of Biomedical Sciences

Honors and Awards

• 10th Health and Medical Research Fund Anniversary Award in Breakthrough Research, Food and Health Bureau, The Government of Hong Kong SAR, 2021
• CUHK Young Researcher Award, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015, 2020
• Visiting Professorship, Southwest Medical University, 2018
• Asa Briggs Visiting Fellowship, University of Sussex, 2017
• Most Promising Young Investigator Award, Food and Health Bureau, The Government of Hong Kong SAR, 2014
• High-impact Scholarship, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012
• Research Excellence Award, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012
• AACR-Eli Lilly Scholar-in-Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research, 2006
• AACR-AFLAC Scholar-in-Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research, 2004
• AACR-ITO EN, LTD. Scholar-in-Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research, 2004
• Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship, 2001
• Arthur Yau Award, 17th Annual Meeting of the Hong Kong Orthopaedic Association, 1997

Professional Service

• Experts Panel for Ministry of Science and Technology of China, People’s Republic of China
• Founding Chairman and Council Member, Japan-Taiwan-Hong Kong Working Group on Cancer Epigenomics
• Founding Member: South China Liver Tumor (START) Working Group
• Executive Committee Member, Hong Kong Cancer Institute
• Panel Member, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Joint Research Scheme
• Panel Member, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme
• Panel Member, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme
• Panel Member, Health and Medical Research Fund, Hong Kong
• Council Member, Hong Kong Society for Immunology
• Member, The Hong Kong Epigenomics Project (EpiHK)
• Member, Society of Hong Kong Scholars
• Member, American Association for Cancer Research
• Associate Editor, Cancers
• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Genetics
• Editorial Board Member, Cellular & Molecular Immunology
• Guest Editor, Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Research Support

Supported by 36 competitive research grants in PC/PI/co-PI capacity (including 1TBRS/ 4CRF/ 1RIF/ 6GRF/ 6RFCID/ HMRF/ 1NSFC/ 3AstraZeneca Program/ Terry Fox Foundation/ Li Ka Shing Foundation): ~HK$113,500,000.

Selected grant record in cancer immunology and cancer epigenetics:

• PI, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/RGC Joint Research Scheme (JRS), Mechanistic basis and therapeutic targeting of pathologic phase separation and aberrant genome architecture for cancer immunotherapy (HK$ 1,250,000), 2024 - 2027
• PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund, The role of macrophage lipid transfer in driving immunotherapy resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HK$ 1,500,000), 2024 – 2026.
• PI, Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation, A pilot study of personalized cancer treatment for cancers in the digestive system (HK$7,011,109) 2023 – 2025.
• PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund, Targeting epigenetic vulnerability in immunosuppressive myeloid cells to overcome immunotherapy resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$1,170,652) 2022 – 2023.
• Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Research Impact Fund 2020/21, Development and applications of a driver-dependent tumor organoid biobank for translational liver cancer research (HK$4,100,000), 2021 – 2025.
• PI, AstraZeneca, Overcoming the PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutic resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma by BET inhibitor (HK$400,000), 2021 – 2023.
• PI, AstraZeneca, Pre-clinical Oncology Research Programme, Overcoming the PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutic resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma by BET inhibitor (HK$400,000) 2021 – 2023.
• More

  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund, Resistance to immune checkpoint targeting in hepatocellular carcinoma: Role of tumor interferon signaling (HK$1,195,542) 2021 – 2022.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund 2019/20, Molecular and functional characterization of the immunoregulatory CCRK-mTOR pathway in NAFLD-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$1,049,917), 2020 – 2022.
  • PI, CUHK, Direct Grant for Research 2019/20, Immunometabolic mechanism in NAFLD-associated HCC (HK$62,000), 2020 – 2021.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2018/19, A state-of-the-art X-ray diffraction facility for structural biology research in Hong Kong (HK$2,306,960), 2019 – 2022.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2018/19, A nanochannel-based next-generation mapping system for the study of complex genomic feature and variation for biotechnological and biomedical applications (HK$2,173,431), 2019 – 2022.
  • PC, Collaborative Research Fund, Deciphering enhancer regulation of tumor immune evasion to develop new combination immunotherapies (HK$6,990,790), 2019 – 2022.
  • PI, Food & Health Bureau, Health and Medical Research Fund, A novel liver-specific PD-L1-trap nanoparticle for hepatocellular carcinoma immunotherapy (HK$1,187,900), 2019 – 2021.
  • PI, Celleron Therapeutics (UK) Limited, Efficacy of combined CXD101, a class I HDAC inhibitor, and anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in HCC orthotopic mouse model (HK$282,000), 2019 – 2020.
  • Co-PI, Bristol-Myers Squibb, BMS Pre-clinical Program 2018/19, Investigating the efficacy and mechanistic basis of BET and PD-1/PD-L1 co-blockade in fibrosis-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$100,000), 2019 – 2020.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Theme-based Research Scheme 2018/19, Potentiating Host Immunity for HIV-1 Functional Cure (HK$47,128,000), 2018 – 2023.
  • PI, Terry Fox Foundation, Terry Fox Cancer Research Funding 2018/19, Functional dissection of fibrosis-induced monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (M-MDSCs) to develop new combination immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$1,200,000), 2018 – 2021.
  • PI, CUHK, Direct Grant for Research 2017/18, Mechanistic dissection of the oncogenic cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK) pathway in obesity-related hepatocellular carcinoma, (HK$71,000), 2018 – 2019.
  • Co-PI, AstraZeneca, Pre-clinical Oncology Research Programme 2018/19, Targeting the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment by CXCR2 blockade for hepatocellular carcinoma therapy (HK$100,000), 2018 – 2019.
  • Co-PI, AstraZeneca, Pre-clinical Oncology Research Programme 2017/18, Enhancement of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Immunotherapy through mTOR Inhibition (HK$400,000), 2017 – 2019.
  • PI, CUHK, Focused Innovations Scheme – Scheme B, Seed Support for High Promise Initiatives 2015/16, Structure-function of Cell Cycle-related Kinase – from Molecular Mechanism to Targeted Drug Development (HK$2,000,000), 2017 – 2018.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund 2015/16, Dissecting an inflammatory-CCRK circuitry in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-related hepatocarcinogenesis, (HK$763,612), 2016 – 2018.
  • PI, CUHK, Direct Grant for Research 2015/16, Role of a CCRK Epigenetic Circuitry in Hepatocarcinogenesis and Patient Survival (HK$50,000), 2016 – 2017.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2014/15, Functional Liver Cancer Epigenomics: Exploiting Epigenetic Vulnerabilities for Therapeutics (HK$7,418,375), 2015 – 2018.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2014/15, Elucidating the molecular defects associated with PTEN mutations in Autism Spectrum Disorders (HK$5,330,831), 2015 – 2018.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund 2013/14, Mechanistic characterization of liver cancer epigenome mediated by androgen receptor signaling (HK$887,850), 2014 – 2017.
  • PI, Food & Health Bureau, Health and Medical Research Fund 2013/14, Targeting H3K27 trimethylation epigenome for liver cancer prevention (HK$738,206), 2014 – 2015.
  • PI, CUHK, Direct Grant for Research 2013/14, A novel link between androgen receptor signaling and DNA repair in hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$48,000), 2014 – 2015.
  • PI, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of China 2011/12, Regulation of DNA methylation by Cell Cycle-Related Kinase, a novel oncogenic kinase in hepatocellular carcinoma, (RMB$700,000), 2013 – 2016.
  • PI, CUHK, Focused Investments Scheme – Scheme B (High Promise Initiatives) 2011/12, Transcriptional and epigenetic control of hepatocarcinogenesis: Effect of metabolic syndrome (HK$3,230,000), 2013 – 2015.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2010/11, Centre for MicroRNA Study – Basic Research and Clinical Potentials in Cancer (HK$4,253,000), 2012 – 2015.
  • PI, Food & Health Bureau, Health and Medical Research Fund 2011/12, A novel androgen receptor oncogenic circuitry in hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocarcinogenesis, (HK$685,020), 2012 – 2014.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund 2009/10, Dissecting the oncogenic function of a novel androgen receptor-dependent direct target, cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK), in hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$887,400), 2011 – 2013.
  • PI, Research Grants Council, General Research Fund 2008/09, Role of EZH2-mediated epigenetic silencing in hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$979,152), 2010 – 2011.
  • PI, Food & Health Burea, Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases 2008/09, Role of H3K27 trimethylation in Hepatitis B virus-induced hepatocarcinogenesis (HK$798,280), 2010 – 2011.
  • Co-PI, Research Grants Council, Collaborative Research Fund 2007/08, Centre for MicroRNA Study – Basic Research and Clinical Potentials in Cancer (HK$5,700,000), 2009 – 2012.
  • PI, Food & Health Bureau, Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases 2007/08, Helicobacter pylori-induced DNA methylation during gastric carcinogenesis (HK$867,966), 2008 – 2010.
  • PI, Food & Health Bureau, Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases 2007/08, Elucidating gene regulatory networks of HBx isolated from novel HBV subgenotype/mutants associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HK$799,216), 2008 – 2010.

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