Professor Clara Lau is currently the Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, and School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Before she joined HKU in April 2024, she was previously the Associate Director of Institute of Chinese Medicine and the State Key Laboratory of Research on Bioactivities and Clinical Applications of Medicinal Plants at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She had also served as Deputy Program Director/Program Director (2005-2015) of a part-time MSc in Chinese Medicines and Herbal Drugs at the School of Chinese Medicine, CUHK. Prior to this, she was a lecturer in Pharmacognosy at the School of Pharmacy, University of Bradford, UK (1997-2000), and an Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2000-2008).

With BPharm and PhD in Pharmacy (Pharmacognosy) from King’s College London, University of London, United Kingdom, Prof. Lau has a continuous interest in medicinal plants, including both western herbals and traditional Chinese herbal medicines. She has over 29 years' experience in natural products research, and aimed to provide scientific evidence to support the traditional use of these herbal medicines. Her main research areas include anti-cancer herbs/natural products, and the beneficial herb-drug combinations. She has published over 285 refereed journal articles (h-index=48) and 11 book chapters, and edited 1 book. She has successfully supervised or co-supervised 39 MPhil or PhD postgraduates in Chinese Medicine, Pharmacognosy or Biochemistry. She is the co-inventor of 9 granted or published US non-provisional or PRC patents.

She currently serves as member of ChP-USP Advisory Group on Monographs for Traditional Chinese Medicine Ingredients and Products; Secretary General and Executive Council Member of The Consortium for Globalization of Chinese Medicine (CGCM); President, and Executive Committee Member of the Board of Directors for Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association (GP-TCM RA); Council member of Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association (MCMIA); Advisor for Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong on Registration of Proprietary Chinese Medicines.