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Emeritus Professor Lam, Karen Siu Ling 林小玲

Title:
Honorary Clinical Professor
Director of Clinical Operations, HKU Health System

Contact Information
rp00343 picture

Emeritus Professor Lam, Karen Siu Ling 林小玲

Title:
Honorary Clinical Professor
Director of Clinical Operations, HKU Health System

Also Cited As:
Lam, Siu-ling, Karen
Lam, Karen
Lam, K

Short Biography:

Professor Karen Lam is Chair Professor in Medicine, Clinical Director of the State Key Lab of Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Academic Lead of the Clinical Trial Centre and Director of Clinical Operations, HKU Health System, at the University of Hong Kong. She was the Chief of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University Department of Medicine and founded the KK Leung Diabetes Centre, Queen Mary Hospital in 1994 as the first comprehensive management and education centre for people with diabetes in Hong Kong. She was the Founding President of Diabetes Hongkong (Honorary President since 2014); a past President of the Hong Kong Society of Endocrine, Metabolism and Reproduction; and a past Chairman of two specialty boards of the HK College of Physicians – Advanced Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism as well as the Working Party on Diabetes Care of the Hospital Authority. She is currently the associate editor/editorial board member of several international peer-reviewed journals in diabetes and endocrinology.

Professional Qualifications
YearAwarding InstitutionQualification
1976University of Hong KongM.B.B.S. (Hon.) H.K
1980Royal College of PhysiciansM.R.C.P. (U.K.)
1987Hong Kong Academy of MedicineF.H.K.C.P.
1990Royal College of Physicians of EdinburghF.R.C.P. (Edinburgh)
1990University of Hong KongM.D. (H.K.)
1993Hong Kong Academy of MedicineF.H.K.A.M. (Med)
1994Royal College of PhysiciansF.R.C.P. (London)
1995Royal Australasian College of PhysiciansF.R.A.C.P.
Biography

Biography

Professor Karen Lam is Chair Professor in Medicine, Clinical Director of the State Key Lab of Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Academic Lead of the Clinical Trial Centre and Director of Clinical Operations, HKU Health System, at the University of Hong Kong. She was the Chief of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University Department of Medicine and founded the KK Leung Diabetes Centre, Queen Mary Hospital in 1994 as the first comprehensive management and education centre for people with diabetes in Hong Kong. She was the Founding President of Diabetes Hongkong (Honorary President since 2014); a past President of the Hong Kong Society of Endocrine, Metabolism and Reproduction; and a past Chairman of two specialty boards of the HK College of Physicians – Advanced Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism as well as the Working Party on Diabetes Care of the Hospital Authority. She is currently the associate editor/editorial board member of several international peer-reviewed journals in diabetes and endocrinology.

Research Profile

Professor Lam has published extensively on clinical, basic and translational research in diabetes and endocrinology, including publications in Diabetes, Diabetes Care, JCEM, ATVB, Circulation, Cell Metabolism, PNAS, JCI , Nat Commun, Nat Genet, and others. Heading an integrated research team with strengths and platforms ranging from cell and animal based research to epidemiological, genetic and clinic-based studies, her current research focuses on the pathogenetic and therapeutic significance of adipokines in diabetes and other obesity-related cardiometabolic disorders. She led the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study (CRISPS; 1995-2018), a population-based cohort study on cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and diseases with the longest follow-up in China, which charted the rise in obesity and metabolic syndrome in Southern China. Together with the Hong Kong West Diabetes Registry (HKWDR) established since 2008, it has provided the database and biobank for investigating the interaction of environmental and genetic factors underlying obesity, diabetes and CV diseases in Chinese (JCEM 2010; Nat Commun 2015, Diabetologia 2017; Nat Genet 2017). The above platforms, database and biobanks have allowed her team to identity novel biomarkers of cardiometabolic diseases and demonstrate their clinical significance, notable examples being the adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (A-FABP) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which have inspired numerous follow-up studies in the field, from the international community.

Her team was the first to demonstrate that serum levels of A-FABP, a proinflammatory adipokine associated with insulin resistance, are raised in obesity and predict the development of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (Clin Chem 2006; Circulation 2007; Diabetes Care 2007). She and her collaborators have subsequently confirmed its clinical significance in diabetic nephropathy (Diabetes Care 2009), stroke (Neurology 2011) and other CV diseases (ATVB 2007; EHJ 2008; JAHA 2013), fatty liver diseases (Hepatology 2009), and obstructive sleep apnoea (ERJ 2009). In preclinical studies, they elucidated its regulation by the C-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) inflammatory signaling (JBC 2010; Diabetes 2011), highlighted its role in mediating the adipo-vascular inter-talk in obesity through fat transplant studies (Clin Sci 2016) and demonstrated the effectiveness of a small molecule A-FABP inhibitor in treating fatty liver diseases (J Hepatol 2013). More recently, they also demonstrated, in the HKWDR cohort, that A-FABP also predicted renal events and multiple mortality outcomes (Clin Chem 2018; Diabetologia 2019). For FGF21, a hormone previously considered as largely a hepatokine, her paper in Diabetes 2008 provided the first evidence for its markedly increased expression in the adipocytes in obesity, leading to raised circulating levels. She subsequently showed that high FGF21 levels could predict the development of T2DM (Diabetes Care 2011) and distinguish T2DM from autoimmune diabetes (JCEM 2012). As beneficial metabolic effects of FGF21 and its analog are observed in animals and humans, respectively, this paradoxical increase in FGF21 levels suggests that obesity is associated with FGF21 resistance, which likely contributes to the clinical findings by her group and others, that elevated FGF21 levels are associated with atherosclerosis (ATVB 2013) and progressive cardiorenal diseases (JCEM 2015; JAHA 2017). In preclinical studies, her group has also demonstrated that FGF21 mediates a liver-brain cross-talk in glucose metabolism (Diabetes 2014) and that it participates in the body’s response against acute liver injury (Hepatology 2014). Their identification on exome-chip analysis of a functional variant of GCKR that regulates FGF21 levels (Diabetes 2017) further supports the physiological relevance of FGF21 in humans.

 
Honours, Awards & Prizes
AwardeesAward DateHonours / Awards / PrizesCategory
2013-04-01Integrated Diabetes Care Centre: Hong Kong West & Queen Mary Hospital Outstanding Team Award
Others
2007-08-01Excellent Research Award, Health Services Research Fund: HKSAR Food & Health Burea
Research Achievement
2014-07-01Honorary President: Diabetes Hongkong
Others
2005-06-01Rosie TT Young Endowed Professorship in Endocrinology & Metaolism: The University of Hong Kong
Teaching Accomplishment
2008-07-01Outstanding Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Award 2008: Hong Kong Women Professionals & Entrepreneurs Association
Others
ZONG, Jiuyu
ZHANG, Zixuan
Shu, L
Cheong, LY
Li, J
2021-03-01Young Investigator Award (Oral presentation): 15th International Symposium On Healthy Aging "towards Enduring Youth"
Research Achievement
Tam, S
Lee, VCY
Yeung, TWY
2015-12-01Best Poster Presentation Award (Clinical): HKU O&G 90th Anniversary Celebration
Research Achievement
LEE, Pui Chi
SHU, Lingling
Zhou, M
2014-01-01Best Abstract in Basic Science and Translational (Oral Presentation): 19th Medical Research Conference
Research Achievement
LEE, Pui Chi
Zhou, M
2012-12-01Best Oral Presentation Award: 7th International HuaXia Congress of Endocrinology
Research Achievement
Li, FYL
2010-08-01Outstanding Scientific Work – Winning poster presentation: Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biology; European Society of Cardiology
Research Achievement
Wang, Y
Li, FYL
2012-02-01Best Abstract in Basic Science and Translational Medicine: 17th Medical Research Conference
Research Achievement
Pang, CBY
2007-10-27Variability of coronary artery calcium scoring using 64-slice MDCT: Best Poster Award at 2nd Joint Scientific Meeting of The Royal College of Radiologists & Hong Kong College of Radiologists and 15th Annual Scientific Meeting of Hong Kong College of Radiologists, Hong Kong, 27-28 October 2007
Research Achievement
2019-02-01Faculty of Medicine research output prize (2018-2019) - Exome chip meta-analysis identifies novel loci and East Asian-specific coding variants: LKS Faculty of Medicine, HKU
Research Achievement
2013-08-21Diabetes Risk Score smartphone application (DRS app): its application in diabetes prevention and health education: Knowledge Exchange (KE) Fund Exercise 2013/14 – Impact Project, UGC
Research Achievement
LEE, Pui Chi
SHU, Lingling
Zhou, M
2014-01-01Best Abstract in Basic Science and translational (Oral Presentation): 19th Medical Research Conference
Research Achievement
Liu, J
CHEN, Jie
2011-11-01Cholesterol-induced mammary tumorigenesis is enhanced by adiponectin deficiency: role of LDL receptor upregulation: The 18th Hong Kong International Cancer Conference
Research Achievement
Li, FYL
2010-03-01Outstanding Abstract Prize, Fifth International Symposium On Healthy Aging: Is Aging A Disease?: Research Centre Of Heart, Brain, Hormone & Healthy Aging, University of Hong Kong
Research Achievement
2006-01-01Best Oral Presentation Award: 11th Medical Research Conference 2006
Research Achievement
Shu, L
Cheong, LY
2019-08-01Excellent Presentation Award: Korean Society for the Study of Obesity - KSSO
Research Achievement
Kwan, SC
Cheng, OY
2015-02-01Research Travel Scholarship 2015: American Academy of Neruology
Research Achievement
LEE, Pui Chi
SHU, Lingling
Zhou, M
2013-01-01Best Oral Presnetation Award: Research Centre Of Heart, Brain, Hormone & Healthy Aging, University of Hong Kong
Research Achievement
Professional Societies
Term PeriodPositionProfessional Societies
1995-2001Regional College Advisor, Hong Kong IslandHong Kong College of Physicians
1996-2001Vice-ChairmanHong Kong College of Physicians
since 1996Council MemberDiabetes Hong Kong
1992-1994PresidentHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
1990-2002Council MemberHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
2007-2010Member, Advisory Panel on International OutreachAmerican Endocrine Society
since 2008Founding Member and Steering Committee MemberAsia Islet Biology and Incretin Research Association
1989-1992Council MemberWestern Pacific Region, International Diabetes Federation
since 1995Member, Education and Accreditation CommitteeHong Kong College of Physicians
2001-2003Chairman, Specialty Board in Advanced Internal MedicineHong Kong College of Physicians
1994-2001Chairman, Specialty Board in Endocrinology & MetabolismHong Kong College of Physicians
since 2014Honorary PresidentDiabetes Hong Kong
1996-2000PresidentDiabetes Hong Kong
2015 - 201MemberThe American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
1990-1998Country RepresentativeAsia-Oceania Society of Endocrinology
since 2002MemberThe Endocrine Society (USA)
1996-2000MemberCentral Committee, International Society of Endocrinology
2012-2014Council MemberHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
2004-2010Council MemberHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
1990–1992Chairman of Diabetes DivisionHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
1988-1990Hon. SecretaryHong Kong Society for the Study of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction
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