Ho Chun Loong's Lab

Microbiome

The microbiome is the collection of all microbes and their genes existing within a specific niche. The genes in the human microbiome outnumber the genes in our own genome by about 100 folds. The microbiome interacts with the host in various manners. As such, the human microbiome can be regarded as a human organ from a physiological standpoint, and its homeostasis is crucial to our health. In our lab, the intestinal and pulmonary microbiomes were investigated, focusing on kid inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and HIV/MTB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) coinfections of the lungs. In addition, the bone microbiome was also studied although bone tissues of healthy humans remain considered sterile to date; however, the physiological structure of bones (including compact and cancellous bones) is suggestive of its susceptibility to exterior microbes, mainly through the blood. Interestingly, blood was also considered aseptic traditionally but has been acknowledged as septic recently, although the blood-borne microbes do not cause significant symptoms in healthy people.

Development of Oral delivery-based optimized therapeutic proteins for cancer and infection treatment

Developing intestinal permeable tags for efficient orally-administered therapeutic proteins, and engineering therapeutic proteins to improve stability, specificity and efficacy against cancer and infections. The study aims to increase the bioactivity of these proteins in the host body by increasing the specificity and efficacy by at least two to three orders of magnitude. This work will provide an alternative to orally-administered conventional therapeutic drugs by exerting the desired bioactivity on the target, while leaving minimal metabolic burden to the host body.