Digital interactions between government agencies and businesses—a phenomenon with the shorthand descriptor “G2B”—is rapidly becoming a ubiquitous feature of life for government agencies and businesses in the 21st century, particularly for technologically sophisticated and savvy e-Commerce culture of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong). However, scholars agree that the transformational aspect of e-Government development has not been fully materialized.

Globally, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Cancer treatments have progressed significantly in recent years, but many women (between 25% and 70% depending on national surgical strategies) will undergo a breast removal operation as part of their treatment.

King’s Health Partners (KHP) researchers are regarded as pioneers in robotic surgery particularly in urological cancers. The KHP team has developed haptics, image guidance, 3D printing for surgical navigation and first in man flexible robotics with an octopus inspired device. They also conducted the world’s first randomised trials in Trans-Atlantic Telerobotics and comparison between open, laparoscopic and robotic cystectomy. These trials received significant international media coverage. The cost-analysis of robotic surgery has influenced national and international guidelines and the first-ever training curriculum has allowed the next generation of robotic surgeons to achieve excellence without compromising patient safety.

Blooms of filamentous cyanobacteria produce hepatotoxins (nodularin, NOD, and microcystin, MC) that are bioaccumulative and potentially harmful for animals and humans. At the same time, these cyanobacteria are often a valuable food source for grazers, because they circumvent summer nitrogen limitation by fixing dissolved nitrogen and generate a supply of nitrogen-rich food. The evidence is accumulating that both NOD and MC can be efficiently degraded by heterotrophic bacteria, thus regulating toxin levels in the water and the food webs. We propose that such bacteria can become an integral part of the gut microbiome in the grazers exposed to cyanobacteria, which may convey a selective advantage for the hosts.

Our researchers at the National Centre for Mesothelioma Research (NCMR) use cutting edge technologies and informatics tools to study mesothelioma and lung cancer. Mesothelioma is mostly caused by asbestos exposure, whereas smoking is the major risk factor for developing lung cancer.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool led by Professor Peter Weightman have developed a new instrument for the early diagnosis of cancer with support from the EPSRC and Cancer Research UK. The instrument provides subcellular infrared (IR) images of cancerous cells and tissue and has the potential to yield a novel diagnostic technique to determine the various stages of cervical, oesophageal and oral cancers. The development of such an instrument for early diagnosis will allow surgeons to test tissue during a surgical operation to ensure the successful removal of all cancerous cells, preventing the reoccurrence and/or spread of cancer.