Recently the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province released the 2019-2020 Proposed Projects Funded by the Specialized Fund of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province. Among the 10 approved projects was the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory for Infectious Diseases headed by Academician Nanshan Zhong, led by the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, and jointly established by the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, The Macau University of Science and Technology, KingMed Diagnostics Group Co., Ltd. and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

On October 22, the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province held the Meeting on the Construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory. Constructed in reference to the state key laboratory standards, the Joint Laboratory will have a construction period of three years, and will be funded by the Provincial Department of Finance. The initiation meeting and awarding ceremony of this batch of joint laboratories will be held at the end of the year.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory for Infectious Diseases will focus on the infectious diseases caused by new and existing pathogens of importance like respiratory pathogens, arboviruses, HIV and HBV, and aim to resolve the key scientific and technical problems in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases in the Greater Bay Area. Researches will be unfolded from three aspects, namely, monitoring warning, epidemiologic trends and diagnostic technology products of infectious diseases, the interaction of pathogens and the body, immunoregulatory mechanisms and clinical treatment strategies of infectious diseases, and development and commercialization of infectious diseases related drugs, vaccines, materials and equipment in the Greater Bay Area. Efforts will be made to establish the infectious disease prevention and control, treatment and research teams, an etiology and immunology research platform for infectious diseases, a diagnosis and clinical treatment platform for infectious diseases, a development and commercialization platform of infectious diseases related drugs, vaccines, materials and equipment in the Greater Bay Area.