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 “Gut microbiota and gastrointestinal cancers: composition, mechanism of action and implications for cancer prevention and treatment”, a research project spearheaded by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Shenzhen Research Institute (SZRI), has received funding for the first time since its establishment from “National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 – Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer, Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Respiratory Diseases, and Metabolic Diseases”. The study on the prevention and treatment of those diseases is a major initiative by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

Professor Yu Jun, Assistant Dean (Mainland Affairs) of the Faculty of Medicine and Director of State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease at CUHK, is the project leader and principal research scientist. The sub-project leaders include Professor Tian Guobao, Vice President of the School of Medicine at Sun Yat-sen University; Professor Pan Wen of School of Life Science at the University of Science and Technology of China; and Professor Wang Liangjing, Vice President of the Second Affiliated Hospital of the School of Medicine at Zhejiang University. The project team brings together leading national experts in microbiota and cancer research.

SZRI hosted the launch ceremony for the project on 20 December 2024. Key project team members from participating units, along with SZRI administrative team members attended the ceremony and held the project’s first meeting, marking its official start with the aim of contributing to a healthy China.

Dr Lin Huangquan, Executive Director of SZRI said: “Today marks a milestone for CUHK and SZRI. This is the first time that SZRI has served as the leading unit for a major project under ‘National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 — Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer, Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Respiratory Diseases, and Metabolic Diseases’, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC. This not only affirms the research strength of CUHK and SZRI but also motivates the Institute to fulfil its mission of contributing to national scientific research and social development.”

Professor Yu shared her experience of preparing for the project. Despite numerous challenges and difficulties, the team members strove for excellence and prepared thoroughly for the application, including proposal, revisions and oral defence, ultimately gaining the funding support. She emphasised that the team members demonstrated extraordinary resilience and professional competence throughout this process. She further expressed gratitude to the project leaders and team members for their hard work, as well as to several professors for their valuable guidance, adding that the project teams will continue to cooperate to fulfil the project’s research tasks.

In recent years, malignant tumours of the digestive system, particularly colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and liver cancer, have been ranked high in both incidence and mortality rates in China, becoming among the most common types of cancer death globally. The imbalance of gut microbiota plays a critical role in the occurrence and progression of digestive system cancers.

This project focuses on colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and liver cancer, aiming to reveal the characteristics of gut microbiota composition, genomic structure and bacterial changes in tumour development. The project will clarify the association of unhealthy diet and lifestyle with the gut microbiota and related metabolites, and to further explore the crosstalk between cancer-related bacteria, their proteins and metabolites with host cells. It also aims to develop fecal microbiota or metabolite detection methods for early diagnosis and prognosis of gastrointestinal cancers, as well as probiotics and phages for cancer prevention and treatment. The project will provide new insights into preventing and treating such cancers.

SZRI, a supporting institution of national and provincial projects, has undertaken over 500 research projects and established various laboratories in recent years, including the Shenzhen Research Base for State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease. As an important CUHK base in mainland China, SZRI promotes industry-academia-research collaboration, advancing research in biomedicine, information technology, sustainable development and more.