Dr. HO Pak Leung, JP

MB BS (HK), MD (HK), PDipID (HK), MRCP (UK), FRCPath, FRCPA, FIDSA, FHKCPath, FHKAM (Pathology)

Clinical Associate Professor

Email: plho@hku.hk

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8811-1308

HKU Scholars Hub: https://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp00406

Biography

Dr. HO Pak Leung, JP is Clinical Associate Professor of the Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong. He is also an Honorary Consultant in the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital.

Dr. Ho is a clinician scientist with 385 scientific publications and h-index 62 (Scopus), primarily in the fields of emerging antimicrobial resistance, clinical microbiology, and infectious diseases. He is ranked by Clavariate Analytics as the Top 1% worldwide by citations and by Standford University as the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide 2023 in the field of Microbiology.

research focus

  1. Novel and emerging antibiotic resistance;

  2. One-Health approach for the investigation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR);

  3. Genomic investigation of resistant bacteria from humans and animals;

  4. Metagenomic investigation of resistome in humans and animals;

  5. Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in AMR investigation;

  6. AMR in Streptococcus pneumoniae, enterococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacterales, and other Gram-negative bacteria;

  7. Clinical relevance of AMR;

  8. Methods for rapid diagnosis of emerging resistance mechanisms;

  9. Evaluation of new antibiotics.

selected publications

  1. Wang, C., Xia, Y., Wang, R., Li, J., Chan, C.-L., Kao, R. Y.-T., Toy, P. H., Ho, P.-L., Li, H., & Sun, H. (2023). Metallo-sideromycin as a dual functional complex for combating antimicrobial resistance. Nature Communications, 14(1), 5311. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40828-3.

  2. Fang, H., Li, X., Yan, M.-K., Tong, M.-K., Chow, K.-H., Cheng, V. C.-C., & Ho, P.-L. (2023). Antimicrobial susceptibility of Bacteroides fragilis group organisms in Hong Kong, 2020–2021. Anaerobe, 82, 102756. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anaerobe.2023.102756.

  3. Cao, H., Bougouffa, S., Park, T.-J., Lau, A., Tong, M.-K., Chow, K.-H., & Ho, P.-L. (2022). Sharing of antimicrobial resistance genes between humans and food animals. mSystems, 7(6), e00775-00722. https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00775-22.

  4. Zhang, Q., Wang, R., Wang, M., Liu, C., Koohi-Moghadam, M., Wang, H., Ho, P.-L., Li, H., & Sun, H. (2022). Re-sensitization of mcr carrying multidrug resistant bacteria to colistin by silver. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(11), e2119417119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119417119.

  5. Sun, H., Zhang, Q., Wang, R., Wang, H., Wong, Y.-T., Wang, M., Hao, Q., Yan, A., Kao, R. Y.-T., Ho, P.-L., & Li, H. (2020). Resensitizing carbapenem- and colistin-resistant bacteria to antibiotics using auranofin. Nature Communications, 11(1), 5263. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18939-y.

  6. Ho, P.-L., Liu, M. C.-J., Tong, M.-K., Fan, P.-M., Tse, C. W.-S., Wu, A. K.-L., Cheng, V. C.-C., & Chow, K.-H. (2020). Evaluation of disc diffusion tests and agar screening for predicting mecA-mediated oxacillin resistance in Staphylococcus lugdunensis revealed a cefoxitin-susceptible, mecA-positive S. lugdunensis clonal complex 27 clone. Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, 20, 260-265. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgar.2019.08.021.

  7. Gladstone, R. A., Lo, S. W., Lees, J. A., Croucher, N. J., van Tonder, A. J., Corander, J., Page, A. J., Marttinen, P., Bentley, L. J., Ochoa, T. J., Ho, P. L., du Plessis, M., Cornick, J. E., Kwambana-Adams, B., Benisty, R., Nzenze, S. A., Madhi, S. A., Hawkins, P. A., Everett, D. B., . . . Bentley, S. D. (2019). International genomic definition of pneumococcal lineages, to contextualise disease, antibiotic resistance and vaccine impact. eBioMedicine, 43, 338-346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.04.021.

  8. Cheng, V. C. C., Wong, S.-C., Cao, H., Chen, J. H. K., So, S. Y. C., Wong, S. C. Y., Sridhar, S., Yuen, K.-Y., & Ho, P.-L. (2019). Whole-genome sequencing data-based modeling for the investigation of an outbreak of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a neonatal intensive care unit in Hong Kong. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, 38(3), 563-573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-018-03458-y.

  9. Kong, H.-K., Pan, Q., Lo, W.-U., Liu, X., Law, C. O. K., Chan, T.-f., Ho, P.-L., & Lau, T. C.-K. (2018). Fine-tuning carbapenem resistance by reducing porin permeability of bacteria activated in the selection process of conjugation. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 15248. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-33568-8.

  10. Gao, P., Ho, P. L., Yan, B., Sze, K. H., Davies, J., & Kao, R. Y. T. (2018). Suppression of Staphylococcus aureus virulence by a small-molecule compound. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(31), 8003-8008. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720520115.

research output and knowledge exchange