News & Stories
2021

News
HKUST Researchers Unveil a Non-classical Nucleation Process That Enhances Ice Formation on Surfaces
Scientists from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have recently discovered a non-classical nucleation process that can greatly facilitate ice formation on foreign surfaces. This finding lays the foundation to predict and control crystallization processes.

News
HKUST Scientists Discover New Mechanisms of Activity Improvement on Bimetallic Catalysts for Hydrogen Generation and Fuel Cells
A group of researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Xiamen University has revealed new understandings of how surface ruthenium atoms can improve the hydrogen evolution and oxidation activities of platinum. This discovery opens a new venue for rational design of more advanced catalysts for electrolyzer and fuel cell applications.

News
HKUST Scientists Discover How Antibiotics Target Bacterial RNAP to Inhibit Its Gene Transcription
A group of researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has uncovered the mechanism of how DNA is being melted to start bacterial gene transcription and how one class of antibiotics inhibits this process – an important way in killing bacteria. This discovery provides useful insight on the development of new antibiotics for bacteria that is antimicrobial resistance.

News
HKUST's Meta-analysis Shows SARS-CoV-2 Variants Unlikely to Affect T Cell Responses
In a new study, scientists at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have revealed that most T cell epitopes known to be targeted upon natural infection are seemingly unaffected by current SARS-CoV-2 variants.
In their latest research, the team compiled and analysed data from 18 immunological studies of T cell responses involving over 850 recovered COVID-19 patients from across four continents who are well-distributed in age, gender, disease severity and blood collection time. They demonstrated that T cells in these patients targeted fragments (epitopes) of almost all of the virus' proteins, including the spike protein that is a main target of many existing vaccines. As an important finding, based on analysis of over 850,000 SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences from around the world, most of these epitopes appeared to be unaffected by the current variants of concern.