Professor Francis Chan and Professor Siew Ng from CU Medicine have been elected as Foreign Members of the Academia Europaea for their distinguished achievements in the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in medicine, for the betterment of public health. They are also the only Hong Kong scholars in the Clinical & Veterinary Science section in 2024.

World authority in gastrointestinal research

Professor Francis Chan is an internationally renowned clinician-scientist in gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, helicobacter pylori, colorectal cancer prevention and applications of gut microbiota. He is also the co-director of the Microbiota I-Center (MagIC), the first microbiota innovation centre in the Greater Bay Area. Starting his research career more than two decades ago, he is the first in academic history to publish eight first-authored, investigator-initiated, original research articles in The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. He is also the first scholar in Asia to be profiled by The Lancet, in May 2007, underlining his excellence in clinical research.

His ground-breaking research has generated over 860 full scientific articles in high-impact international journals, yielding an h-index of over 100. His research on the prevention of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug- (NSAID) and aspirin-related GI bleeding has led to major revisions to clinical practice guidelines in the U.S., Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, which assist physicians to communicate with patients, enhancing their understanding of the benefits and risks of aspirin therapy. In recent years, he and his research team have developed a novel faecal test, M3CRC, which can detect polyps and early colon cancers. In 2023, he led the formulation of new clinical practice guidelines with international experts on the use of non-invasive biomarkers for colorectal cancer screening.

“I feel deeply honoured to be elected as a foreign member of the Academia Europaea and would like to dedicate this achievement to my colleagues and collaborators who have worked along with me over the years. This recognition is a testament to collaborative efforts to advance knowledge and innovation in the field of gastrointestinal research,” Professor Chan remarked.

A pioneer in inflammatory bowel disease and microbiome medicine

Professor Siew Ng is a world-renowned researcher of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the gut microbiome. She currently serves as the Director of MagIC and Associate Director of the Centre for Gut Microbiota Research. Since joining CU Medicine in 2010, she and her team have been deeply devoted to the study of IBD, leading researchers from over 30 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, and bringing about a paradigm shift in public health regionally and globally.

She was the first to define the genetics, epidemiology and potential environmental triggers of IBD in newly industrialised countries. In 2013, she introduced faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to Hong Kong to treat patients with life-threatening gut infections, and later established Asia’s first FMT research centre. Her patented technology, MOZAIC, which improves the success rate of FMT, is the first microbiome innovation adopted by the local hospital authority to provide a territory-wide FMT service in Hong Kong. In 2019, Professor Ng established MagIC as part of the HKSAR Government’s InnoHK initiative, to focus on studies in the gut microbiome, and founded a biotechnology company that focuses on translating innovative microbiome solutions into effective diagnostics and therapeutics.

“I am most delighted to receive the honour from Academia Europaea. Over the years, we have transformed our study of the gut microbiome into novel innovations for early disease detection and treatment. We hope to redefine human health with microbiome solutions,” said Professor Ng.