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A research team led by Professor Nathalie Wong from the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been honoured with a second-class award in natural sciences from the Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) 2025 from the Ministry of Education (MOE). It earned the prestigious recognition for its work on the project “Unique Genome Features of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, their Functional Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications”.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, is one of the most prevalent and deadly malignancies in China, with a five-year recurrence rate exceeding 70% after liver resection, posing a severe threat to public health. Over the past 12 years, Professor Wong and her team have conducted systematic, in-depth research on HCC’s genomic characteristics and epigenetic regulation mechanisms, and the molecular pathogenesis of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)[1]-related liver cancer, leading to a series of clinically significant discoveries.

Professor Wong said: “I am deeply honoured to receive the 2025 MOE Outstanding Scientific Research Output Award (Natural Sciences). This honour not only affirms the academic achievements of myself and my team but also greatly encourages our ongoing research work. Looking into the future, my team and I will further consolidate our research on the mechanisms and innovative treatments of hepatocellular carcinoma, hoping to further implement clinical trials to help liver cancer patients to achieve long-term health benefits”

Key achievements of the award-winning project include: The first-ever systematic analysis of spatial (intra-tumoral) and temporal (inter-tumoral) heterogeneity in HCC among the Chinese population, revealing the chronological sequence of key molecular events and clonal evolution patterns in tumour progression, providing a theoretical foundation for recurrence risk prediction models. The team also elucidated the molecular features of MASLD-related liver cancer, demonstrating significant differences in driver genes and the immune microenvironment between MASLD-HCC and hepatitis B virus-associated HCC, and proposing a combined immunotherapy strategy for MASLD-HCC. Additionally, the project comprehensively established the alternative RNA splicing landscape of HCC. Using third-generation RNA sequencing technology, the team identified 362 novel RNA transcripts, explored precision therapeutic strategies targeting RNA splice variants, and uncovered the functional mechanisms of non-coding RNAs in HCC.

Professor Wong’s team also includes Assistant Professor Ding Xiaofan from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Macau and Associate Professor Wang Xin from the Department of Surgery at CUHK.

About the Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) from the Ministry of Education

The MOE Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) aim to promote innovation and technology transfer in alignment with national strategic needs, socioeconomic development and global scientific frontiers, while enhancing universities’ original innovation capabilities and talent cultivation. The awards recognise outstanding research achievements in natural sciences and engineering technologies, as well as contributions to nurturing future innovators. The award is nomination-based, with nominations and evaluations conducted every three years.

[1] Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) was once called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It refers to a condition where there is a buildup of fat in the liver in people with metabolic conditions such as diabetes and obesity, causing chronic inflammation and damage to the liver.