The Huo Family Foundation has donated £3m to COVID-19 scientific research

We have shifted our priorities to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with speed and have now funded three multi-year grants totalling £3m. Recipients include research projects at the University of Oxford, King’s College and Imperial College. 

A £993,000 grant to King’s College London will support the team’s research into understanding the immune response to the virus, offer more insight into testing and develop new treatments while the world awaits a vaccine. 

A donation of £1 million to Imperial College London is funding part of The REACT programme — a major study involving home testing 100,000 people in the UK to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community and assess the feasibility of mass home antibody testing.

A further £1 million has been given to the University of Oxford team working to determine if people develop lasting and effective immunity after a COVID-19 infection, to inform future public health interventions. 

Yan Huo, founder of The Huo Family Foundation, said: “The emergence of COVID-19 has had a devasting impact on societies and economies throughout the world. These UK research projects play a vital part in advancing our understanding of this new virus, which continues to affect communities worldwide. 

Our foundation is proud to support such critical work. Our hope is that scientific advancement relating to COVID-19 will benefit millions of people.”