↑Professor Al-Jamal is a three-time winner of the Wellcome Trust Science Image Awards, having collaborated with her lab members at King’s to capture and colourise their microscopic findings. ‘In Hong Kong, I can translate research into patients setting. Clinicians and basic scientists collaborate here, supported by excellent research infrastructure. I also look forward to enhancing student training opportunities.’ Professor Khuloud T Al-Jamal awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of London which enabled her over time to manage PhD and junior postdoc students and successfully obtained grants to study dendrimers’ role in inhibiting tumour growth. Her success attracted funding from cancer charities and research organisations, and the prestigious Royal Pharmaceutical Society Science Award for outstanding scientific achievements in nanomedicine in 2012. Her career accelerated after joining King’s College London as an assistant professor in 2011. Starting with one PhD student and £10,000, she became a full professor within five years. ‘I was lucky in a way because I was working in an area of high interest. Nanotechnology and nanomedicine were similar to artificial intelligence now. But my success required hard work and credibility. The quality of my lab’s research attracted talented students and postdocs. I didn’t have to ask them to work hard; I led by example,’ she said. Upon achieving full professorship, she sought to make a broader impact. She became Head of the Research Department, one of four within the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King’s College. This gave her more experience mentoring and managing people including senior staff, promoting interdisciplinarity, and dealing with management – experience that she says has prepared for her role at HKUMed. ‘I felt I had grown out of my previous position. I wanted to do something different. I also consider myself international – I grew up in one place, worked in another. I have a different heritage, so I’m kind of a citizen of the world. When I visited HKU, I felt welcome by the department and the faculty, which is crucial for breaking down more barriers,’ she said. Continuing her research was also vital. Professor Al-Jamal has received a government Global STEM Professorship, which is also helping her to recruit staff to her lab. She was also recently awarded a Jockey Club STEM Lab to support her research. ‘The University has of course promised me support, but I feel better that I am contributing to the University so that existing resources can be better utilised for the Deparment’s capacity building,’ she said. Her immediate focus is preparing the department to become a school, which involves increasing research activities and identifying new areas for growth. ‘Currently, we excel in pharmacology, drug discovery, data science and clinical pharmacy. We aim to expand into medicine development, which is my area of expertise. That would complete the thread from making medicines to delivering them to patients,’ she explained. Collaboration will be key. ‘I encourage staff to work with researchers from engineering and science, and other universities in Hong Kong, so as to maximise resources. Collaboration across the Greater Bay Area will be important given the limited number of hospitals and patients in the city. I am also considering new teaching programmes, perhaps at the Master’s level. Making a success of the enhanced community pharmacy clinics will be another priority (see page 19). Her most important task, though, will be reaching out to people. ‘We need to empower and mentor younger generations and think about succession planning. We must also review and audit what we do and ask, how do we know this is the best way we can do things?’ 33 HKUMed News Winter 2024
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