About us
Chairman's message
As we celebrate a new beginning of the Pasteur Foundation Asia, I would like to share with you the vision and objectives of our charitable organization.
The Pasteur Foundation Asia supports crucial scientific research, teaching and public health initiatives for the prevention and treatment of diseases, the promotion of awareness of the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases and the improvement of global health conditions. Donations we raise from our community enable us to allocate funds to the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, which works closely with the Institut Pasteur and its International Network for the aforementioned objectives, or to specific projects chosen by the donors themselves.
With the continual globalization, I would emphasize the need for expanding and investing in the research on virology with a view to mitigating risks hazardous to health and improving health situations locally and world-wide. History has proven that we must continuously develop effective cures for known and potential diseases based on past experiences; be vigilant in preventing outbreak of epidemic and able to take fast corrective actions if and when epidemic occurs. You may recall that nearly half of the population in Europe died of plague in the 19th century and about half of the 70 million people infected with the HIV virus since the beginning of the pandemic died of AIDS related illnesses. In recent decades, the number of dengue fever cases has grown dramatically around the world and it is estimated that 3.9 billion people in 128 countries are at risk of infection with dengue viruses. There are also other diseases such as ZIKA, bird-flu, which continue to pose threats to global health.
No doubt, more efforts and funds are needed for the research and development of cures and preventive measures. In this respect, I am hopeful that the Pasteur Foundation Asia will be able to contribute its reasonable share not only for the benefits of people living in Hong Kong but also neighboring countries and ultimately world-wide.
None of this would be possible without the support we have received. The Foundation extends a sincere “Thank you” to the Institut Pasteur, The University of Hong Kong, our Council members, and our friends and donors for your contributions. You have truly made a positive difference.
Leo Kung
Pasteur Foundation Asia
About us
What we do － mission
The Pasteur Foundation Asia is a charitable organization governed by the Council which comprises business and scientific community leaders who contribute their time voluntarily.
The missions of the Pasteur Foundation Asia are:-
- To inspire and support research, teaching, public health initiatives and related operations of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole for the prevention and treatment of diseases in Hong Kong, China, Asia and other parts of the world.
- To support and assist the activities of the Institut Pasteur and the Institut Pasteur International Network in collaboration with other organizations, to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases and enhance global health
- To promote the Foundation among research institutes, professional societies and the medical-scientific community in Hong Kong, China and across Asia
About us
What we do － vision
The vision of the Pasteur Foundation Asia is to inspire and support research projects and training programs of global impact through collaboration with the Institut Pasteur, the Institut Pasteur International Network and other medical institutions, for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in Hong Kong, China, Asia and other parts of the world, ultimately enhancing global health.
About us
Organisation
The governing body of the Pasteur Foundation Asia is the Council where members are professionals from scientific and business fields with strong commitment to promote global health.
The number of Council members will not be less than 3 or more than 12 persons. At present, there are 5 Council members and they are appointed on two-year terms, and are eligible for re-election. Council members all serve on a voluntary basis and provide advice from their professional perspectives. Council meetings are held at least twice a year.
The Council sets the strategic direction of the Foundation, approves the annual budget, monitors and ensures proper use of funds it is entrusted as well as promoting the mission and public awareness of the Pasteur Foundation Asia.
Integrity
PFA strives to adopt the best practices in corporate governance. Council members are committed to demonstrate integrity and honesty in the handling and management of funds and resources, as well as exercise objectivity and fairness in dealing with all stakeholders.
Transparency
PFA understands that voluntary disclosure is essential in establishing public confidence. We are committed to communicate our latest development with stakeholders as well as disclosing clear, accurate and timely financial information for public scrutiny. Our financial accounts are prepared in accordance with the Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards and are independently audited by international accounting firms and published in our annual report.
About us
The council
The Council of the Pasteur Foundation Asia currently comprised of 6 members. They are appointed on a two-year term and are eligible for re-election.
Mr. Kung is the Executive Vice President of Bangkok Bank Public Co. Ltd and has held a variety of significant positions including that of the Chairman of the Board of Ocean Park Corporation; a Board Member of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority; the Deputy Chairman of Steering Committee on Selection, Quality Assurance and Review of the E-Textbook Market Development Scheme (EMADS) of Education Bureau; a Member of Finance Committee & Funds Management Sub-Committee of Hong Kong Housing Authority; a Member of The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; a Standing Committee Member of Shanghai Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; the Vice President & Treasurer of Hong Kong-Shanghai Economic Development Association Limited; the Convener of Trustees of the Helping Hand Charitable Trust and a Director of the Board; a Member of Steering Committee on Caring Company Scheme of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service; a Committee Member of Shanghai Chinese Overseas Friendship Association; a Trustee of The Queen Mary Hospital Charitable Trust and also an Advisor to the Chinese Bankers Club, Hong Kong. He was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star in 2011 and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2016 and the Gold Bauhinia Star (GBS) in 2018.
Professor Stewart Cole is an internationally renowned scientist and professor of Microbial Pathogenesis. Since 2007 he has served as Professor and Director of the Global Health Institute at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) – a world-leading education and research centre.
For 24 years, Professor Cole worked as a researcher and also held various research management positions at the Institut Pasteur. He was Director of Strategic Technologies and then Executive Scientific Director, contributing to several patent applications relating to HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. He participated in the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Institut Pasteur in Iran, the Institut Pasteur in Montevideo and the Institut Pasteur in Lille. Professor Cole was also acting President of the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2005.
He has been the recipient of many national and international prizes and distinctions. In 2009, he was awarded the World Health Organization’s prestigious Stop-TB Partnership Kochon Prize for his leadership and ground-breaking accomplishments in genetic research on M. tuberculosis and his contribution to novel therapeutic strategies for tackling TB.
During his career, he has been involved in the work of several foundations and scientific committees, and was notably Chair of the board of the Innovative Medicine for Tuberculosis Foundation and President of the commission médicale for the Fondation Raoul Follereau. Professor Stewart Cole has also published more than 350 scientific papers on infectious diseases, most notably tuberculosis and leprosy.
Professor Roberto BRUZZONE was born in Italy and studied medicine at University “La Sapienza” in Rome. After working at the University of Geneva and Harvard Medical School, he joined Institut Pasteur in 1995. Roberto is a cell biologist widely recognized for his work on direct cell-cell communication through connexins and their associated human diseases. In October 2006, he was appointed as Visiting Professor in the Li Ka Shi Faculty of Medicine and served as the CEO of the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre, which has now become the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole affiliated to the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong.
Since coming to Hong Kong he has held positions of scientific and administrative leadership in teaching programs and major international networks to combat infectious diseases. He has been on the Executive Committee of the International Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Consortium (ISARIC) since 2012 and is currently one of the Vice-Chairs.
He is the author of over 100 publications with more than 8,000 citations. He was decorated in 2012 as Knight of the National Order of Merit in France for his contribution to the advancement of biomedical research in infectious diseases, and for his commitment to fostering exchanges in research and teaching between France and Hong Kong.
Professor Malik Peiris is a clinical and public health virologist with a particular interest in emerging virus disease at the animal-human interface including influenza, coronaviruses (SARS, MERS) and others. His current research encompasses the pathogenesis, innate immune responses, transmission, ecology and epidemiology of human and animal (poultry, swine, wild birds) influenza viruses. His research has provided understanding on the emergence and pathogenesis of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus and on avian influenza viruses H5N1, H9N2 and H7N9. His collaborative research has provided evidence-based options for the control of these viruses in poultry and in humans. In 2003, he played a key role in the discovery that a novel coronavirus was the cause of SARS, its diagnosis and pathogenesis.
He coordinates an 8 year multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional Area of Excellence Program of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong on the “Control of Pandemic and Inter-pandemic Influenza” and a recent Theme Based Research grant on “Influenza Transmission and Pathogenesis” from the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong. He is an investigator in the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) program of NIAID, National Institutes of Health, USA. He has an extensive collaborative research network globally.
He co-directs the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory at HKU and serves on many standing committees and ad-hoc advisory committees of the WHO and FAO. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2006, a Foreign Associate to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2017, awarded the Officier de la Legion d’Honneur, France (2017), Mahathir Science Award, AkademiSains, Malaysia (2007) and Silver Bauhinia Star (S.B.S.), Hong Kong SAR (2008). He serves on the editorial boards of Lancet Infectious Diseases and PLoS Medicine.
Mr. Forsyth was admitted as a solicitor in England in 1970 and in Hong Kong in 1971 and as a notary public in Hong Kong in 1978. He has represented a wide range of private and corporate clients in all aspects of Commercial and Company, Mergers and Acquisitions, Regulatory Law of Insurance, Securities and Futures, Immigration, Intellectual Property and Information Technology and Commercial and Residential Tenancies.
Mr. Forsyth is a former council member and vice president of the Hong Kong Society of Notaries and of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal Panel; a former member of the Competition Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong; a former member of Law Society of Hong Kong, Working Party on the Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance. He is also a Legal Committee Member of The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce; Council Member of the Hong Kong Internet Professionals Association; Hong Kong & Mainland Software Industry Cooperation Association; Member of the Companies Registry and Hong Kong Government Advisory Group on the rewrite of Hong Kong Company Law.
Mr. Forsyth also serves as Trustee and Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Festival; Trust Member and Past President of The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong; former committee and former Vice Chairman of the Friends of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; member of Committee of Management of the University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong; Chairman of the China Heritage Art Foundation; member of the Board, Art and Education Limited; Chairman and Board of Governors of Musica Viva Limited; former Governor and Legal Advisor to elnclusion Foundation Limited; Director of Global Heritage Fund Asia Limited; Director of the Kew Asia Foundation Limited.
Besides the above community involvement, Mr. Forsyth is the Honorary Legal Adviser to New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association; Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited; Hong Kong Festival Fringe; Friends of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; Friends of the Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Friends of the University of Hong Kong Museum and Art Gallery; Hong Kong International Film Festival Limited. He is also a Committee Member and Former Legal Adviser of the Royal Overseas League, Hong Kong Branch.
Mr. Forsyth has written articles and publications extensively on various different topics covered under Commercial Law, Trademark Law, Intellectual Property Law, Personal Data Privacy Protection under the law generally and on the Internet and on the Electronic Transactions Ordinance.
Dr. Buckle has been in the Biotechnology industry for almost 30 years accumulating an extensive experience over a rich career that has developed a scientific, commercial and business acumen. Pioneer and strong expertise in the Biomarker/Translational Medicine field and strategic alliances through all the positions lead.
Since November 2014, Isabelle is the Executive Vice President for Technology Transfer and Industrial partnership at Institut Pasteur in Paris. Her department is detecting, protecting and transferring innovation emerging from over 2000 curiosity driven scientists in close collaboration with the 32 Institut Pasteur’s in the world.
Previously, at Bruker Daltonics as Global Vice President Clinical Mass Spectrometry, her role was to propel emerging clinical solutions with mass spectrometry from point of launch to achieve early, meaningful adoption with key opinion-leading customers.
In 2010 Isabelle was appointed CEO of InGen BioSciences, a well established French in vitro diagnostics company. The R&D was mainly focused on the development of multiparametric tests for infectious diseases. InGen, a 100% subsidiary, was a major French distribution company for in vitro HLA typing. InGen BioSciences was successfully sold in December 2012.
Before joining InGen BioSciences, Dr. Buckle was 5 years Business Development Director Global Strategic Accounts, Worldwide at Applied Biosystems (ABI) and at Life Technologies when they acquired ABi, where she was responsible for the revenue growth and development of business relationship with global pharmaceutical accounts. Now Life Technologies is part of ThermoFischer.
Prior to this, Isabelle was at Ciphergen Biosystems for 6 years creating the subsidiaries and successfully launching a new cutting edge technology in proteomics. She was then appointed Head of Business Development Diagnostic Europe responsible for the development and implementation of a business plan for collaborations with leading clinical institutions to leverage the scientific and clinical know-how of world experts on a variety of disease related topics in the translational medicine.
Before joining Ciphergen, Isabelle worked for 10 years at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (now part of GE) moving up through a variety of positions starting as a Field Specialist, moving to Product Support Manager, progressing to Sales Director for Academic and Clinical Research in France and finally holding the position of European Business Director for Lab Separation. Dr. Buckle is also a member of several biotech board.
Isabelle holds a Masters and BSc in Biochemistry and received her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Paris VII for her thesis performed at the Institut Pasteur.
In her personal life Isabelle belongs to the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA), European chapter, and was president-elect 2012. HBA is an international organization that aims to develop and empower women, both professionally and on a personal level.