
Sir Michael Houghton, a Nobel laureate, has joined Hong Kong Baptist University to develop a hepatitis C vaccine, citing reduced research funding in the US and Europe as his primary motivation for the move.
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Sir Michael Houghton is a Nobel Prize winner known for co-discovering the hepatitis C virus. He currently leads the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta.
A British Nobel-winning virologist has launched a programme to develop the world’s first hepatitis C vaccine after joining a university in Hong Kong, tapping the city’s research funding, access to Chinese strains of the virus and partnerships with mainland drug-makers.
Sir Michael Houghton, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the co-discovery of the hepatitis C virus, said he joined Baptist University after more than four decades in North America, as the United States and Europe had cut their science spending.
“President Trump and his ministers have really damaged the National Institutes of Health, and my research grant was cut. In Europe, economic problems because of inflation also mean less money goes to research,” Houghton, who also leads the University of Alberta’s Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute in Canada, said.

The Tuotuohe Meteorological Station, located at the source of the Yangtze River at an altitude of 4,533 meters, celebrates its 70th anniversary. As the highest-altitude sounding meteorological station in China, the station has overcome extreme high-altitude environments for many years and continues to provide meteorological observation data to the world, providing basic support for plateau and global climate research.

Scientists announced updates on Nanzuo, an ancient capital in Gansu, China, focusing on a 5,000-year-old central palace that villagers deliberately buried.

China News Service reported that Wang Yuhua, China's first Tibetan doctorate in engineering who studied abroad, has been deeply engaged in the research of luminescent materials for thirty years. He started from a 20-square-meter hut and presided over the National 863 Project and other projects. He applied for more than 30 invention patents, promoted the development of new domestic light sources, and raised funds to establish scholarships and bursaries to support future generations.

The Taiwanese team won a total of 8 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 13 bronze medals at the "International Youth Invention Exhibition" (IEYI) held in Beijing. Among them, the "Smart Fire Escape Helmet" developed by Lin Chenghao of Weige Elementary School in Taichung, and the "Toibot" smart public toilet system developed by Zhang Tingyu and Li Yaoyu of Taipei Xing'an Elementary School were recognized with gold medals.

The archaeological report "Xianfeng Tangya" was recently published, making public for the first time the results of the investigation and excavation of the Tangya Tusi City ruins in Enshi, Hubei from 2011 to 2014. As a world cultural heritage, the site's layout and remains show the Ming Dynasty chieftains' absorption of Han culture and their affiliation with the central government.
The "From Evidence to Solutions" Artificial Intelligence Policy Research Program, led by Pan Jiaofeng, President of the Institute of Science and Technology Strategy Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was officially selected into the United Nations' "International Decade of Science for Sustainable Development 2024-2033", marking the entry of Chinese think tank research into the global scientific cooperation agenda.