Karolinska Institutet is to set up its own research base in Hong Kong. This is made possible by a donation of USD 50 million, equivalent to SEK 400 million made by Hong Kong-based businessman Ming Wai Lau.

The Ming Wai Lau Center for Regenerative Medicine will comprise two nodes, one in Stockholm and one in Hong Kong, and will allow scientists from Hong Kong, China, and around the world to work together in an independent research environment under the auspices of Karolinska Institutet.

The Center’s research focus will be on three major disease areas in which Karolinska Institutet and several Hong Kong universities possess unique expertise. One of its objectives is to use stem cell technology to rebuild damaged tissue, focusing, for example, on heart tissue damaged by infarction, spinal injury and finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease, and on repairing a damaged liver using stem cell transplants.

“This exceedingly generous donation from Ming Wai presents unprecedented opportunities to do groundbreaking research in these extremely important disease areas,” says Professor Anders Hamsten, vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet. “The new center will provide our university with a pathway to critically important knowledge and bring us closer to key partners.”

The donor Mr. Ming Wai Lau is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd and Vice Chairman of the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre. He holds a Master of Laws and a PhD from the London School of Economics and King’s College London, with his doctoral thesis being published as a book by Oxford University Press in 2011. He is also a registered attorney in the State of New York and in 2014 was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School, Boston, USA. Ming Wai Lau is also active in public affairs.

Read more in a press release.