Professor Honglin Chen finishied his PhD study in Microbiology from The University of Hong Kong, focusing on the molecular biology of Epstein-Barrvirus (EBV) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). He continued his post-doctoral research on EBV at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Chen re-joined the Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong in 2003 and has since expanded his research scopes to RNA viruses including emerging influenza viruses and coronaviruses. He has established several strong research programmes and platform technologies which focus on studying the molecular determinants for crosss-pecies transmission of avian influenza viruses and coronavirus. His research  on influenza virus has led to important publications and the establishment of a unique DelNS1 live attenuated influenza vaccine system which has been used to develop vaccines for COVID-19, and become an important technology for the pandemic preparedness for future emerging respiratory viral diseases.