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Kelvin Chan

Suzanne_Grant

Adjunct Professor, NICM Health Research Institute

Professor Chan is Adjunct Professor in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Research since 2014 at the NICM Health Research Institute of Western Sydney University in Australia; Emeritus Professor in Natural Products & TCM Research since 2018 at the School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, and Vising Professor since 2022 at the School of Ethnic Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, PR China.

He trained in Pharmaceutical Industry, further developed as a pharmacologist with special training in clinical pharmacology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics at medical schools in University of Birmingham (PhD & DSc) and University of Liverpool (Post-doctor fellow), United Kingdom, Finders Medical School in Adelaide, Australia, and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. His interests in integrative research of conventional medicine and TCM started since early1990s while taking up the position as Senior Lecturer/Reader in Pharmacology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1981-1992).

He then returned to UK as Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the School of Pharmacy at the Liverpool Johns Moores University (1992-2000) while holding Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Liverpool and Middlesex in the UK; Institute of Pharmacognosy & Pharmacy, University of Vienna, Austria; Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing and Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in Shenyang in PR China. He then took up the challenge as Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of R&D at the Institute for the Advancement of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University (2000 - 2005) where he developed the ISO-17025 as standard for Chinese Materia Medica as prerequisite for TCM products for registration requirement. Professor Chan took up the position as Founding Chair Professor & Director in Pharmacy & Pharmacology at University of Wolverhampton, UK (2005 to 2009). He was invited to take up the position of Joint Chair in Traditional Chinese Medicine at University of Western Sydney and University of Sydney (2009-2014) before retiring from full-time academic position while taking up the position of Senior Advisor in Chinese medicines at the Department of Health in Hong Kong SAR, China (2015-2017).

Research focus

Adjunct Professor Chan's present research directions and interests focus towards the R&D of Chinese medicines and natural products using technology developed from systems biology, as well as evidence-based medicine in TCM practice. He has supervised and co-supervised 32 postgraduates (PhD and 8 MSc/MPhil) from conventional medical and Chinese medical fields.

He has published 3 specialist books on Chinese medicine, and over 600 hundred publications, which include keynotes/conference presentations, drug monographs, and peer-reviewed papers (>260) in conventional medicine and TCM. Those published from the early 1990s are mainly related to pharmacological/pharmaceutical fields and mechanistic studies of interactions between herbal medicines and pharmaceuticals. His research directions and interests have since changed towards medicinal and pharmaceutical development of Chinese herbal medicines and natural products.

Recognition and Community Services

Adjunct Professor Chan received:

  • The British Pharmaceutical Science Award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for my research work on "Application of Pharmacokinetics in Drug Use" in 1993.
  • The Churchchill Travel Fellowship in recognition of his project on "Critical Assessment of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Far East" given by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, the first ever award given to a non-UK related discipline in1996.
  • The Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 2018.

Adjunct Professor Chan serves as member of the following boards/committees:

  • International Advisory Board and Scientific Committee of the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards project, organised by Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR, PR China (Feb. 2002 to present);
  • Beneficiary member of the EU-FP7 Consortium of the "Good Practice in TCM Research in the post-genomic era" project, funded and supported by the Seventh framework programme of the European Community for research and technological development (May 2009 to Oct 2012);
  • WHO Temporary Advisor on Training Course of Quality Control of Herbal Medicines                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (2013 to 2017);
  • Individual Expert member of the TCM Working Group of the European Directorate for Quality of Medicine & Healthcare (EDQM) in Strasbourg, France to prepare monographs of Chinese materia medica for the European Pharmacopoeia (March 2008 to present).