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HerbalEGram: Volume 7, Number 7, July 2010
Che Named First Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy
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Chun-Tao Che, PhD, has been named the first Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy, and will begin this position in January 2011. Dean of UIC’s College of Pharmacy, Jerry Bauman, PharmD, officially announced the appointment at the Farnsworth Symposium in Chicago, Illinois, on March 23, 2010.
“I am privileged to be the first Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC),” Dr. Che said. “This prestigious position honors the career and accomplishments of Dr. Farnsworth as a seasoned scientist, a caring educator, and a visionary pioneer in modern pharmacognosy. As a former student of UIC, I am profoundly grateful for the education and training I received there, and I feel highly honored to be a member of the pharmacognosy team in my alma mater. This new title will keep reminding me of the gloried history of pharmacognosy at UIC and my commitment to the field.”
Dr. Che did his doctoral research at UIC under the mentorship of ASP member and past president, Harry Fong, PhD. After a postdoctoral position at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada, he returned to UIC. In 1995, he became a founding member of the faculty of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and in 1998 he joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a Professor and Director of the School of Chinese Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Throughout his career, Dr. Che has been a highly productive researcher. He has published over 200 articles, many in top-ranked journals in his field. His research has focused on medicinal plants, many of which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). His research has spanned from phytochemical analysis to the clinical effects of herbal medicines. He is considered one of the top pharmacognosy researchers in the world, especially in the field TCM. He also has an interest in literature databases of traditional and herbal medicine, an area that Dr. Farnsworth has long been a leading figure through the Natural Products Alert (NAPRALERT) database he established at UIC.
Dr. Farnsworth, who worked tirelessly to create this first-ever endowed professorship at UIC’s College of Pharmacy, stated, “The Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy Endowed Professorship was set up by gifts from Mr. Tom Chappell and his wife and my wife and me. It was partially conceived to insure the continuing of the scientific traditions set by myself and pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. Professor C.T. Che will occupy the Professorship at the beginning of 2011 and has the background, reputation, and scientific interests that will insure that research will continue in the area of natural products, especially with higher plants, at UIC.”
Dr. Che is a recognized international expert in the field of pharmacognosy. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of international journals, including Phytotheraphy Research, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Pharmaceutical Biology, as well as a number of Chinese journals. He has also served in leadership roles in a number of professional societies. Dr. Che is a respected and leading figure internationally in pharmacognosy.
Dr. Che has extensive experience training doctoral students in pharmacognosy as well as postdoctoral fellows, a role considered to be vital for the Farnsworth Professor. Dr. Che is committed to building up a strong pharmacognosy graduate program at UIC. His goal is to train the next generation of pharmacognosists who are not only good in science but also visionary and committed to the discipline. “I will also seize every opportunity to promote the development of pharmacognosy as a research and professional discipline. We have all witnessed the ups and downs of this field in the past decades. I believe it is high time to foster a sense of unity among pharmacognosists and join force to lead the field in meeting the challenges ahead.”
Dr. Che has an established record in the world of grants. He worked as a sub-project leader of Garth Powis’, PhD, NCI grant “Cancer drugs against signal transduction targets.” He also worked with Brian Berman, MD, of the University of Maryland on two NIH-NCCAM grants on the irritable bowel disorder (IBD) and Chinese medicine. The first grant with Dr. Berman led to a five-year funded project on IBD where Dr. Che served as co-investigator and project and core leader. In addition to his NIH-grant experience, Dr. Che has a long and steady record of funding from the government of Hong Kong, universities, and some private funding.
Interest in TCM in the United States has grown considerably in the past decade. At the same time, China has devoted considerable resources to better standardized TCM using modern laboratory methods. Dr. Che has been at the forefront of this movement. His international reputation on TCM research will bring considerable strength and recognition to this arena of pharmacognosy research to UIC. The research of UIC Professors Farnsworth and Fong on TCM is well known, and it therefore seems appropriate that the first Farnsworth Professor bring expertise in this ever growing field of TCM.
Dr. Che plans to start a research group at UIC, which he hopes will be complementary to the existing vibrant pharmacognosy team in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. He will focus on the discovery of bioactive natural products, particularly those from traditional medicine. “While I have been studying mainly Chinese medicinal herbs, either singly or in combination, in the last 20 years, I will not limit myself to only one ethnomedical system. I will actively seek for working partners, both in the United States and in the rest of the world.”
Dr. Che and his wife are looking forward to moving back to Chicago after being away for 20 years. “Both of us lived there for over 10 years, and, as a matter of fact, we met, got married, and our daughter was born there. Chicago is a place dear to our hearts and we all feel excited to go back to the Windy City.”
The establishment of the Farnsworth professorship signifies Dr. Farnsworth’s vision and unfailing support to the development of pharmacognosy. Dr. Che hopes that by setting up this position, it will help foster deeper and fruitful collaborations among pharmacognosists and colleagues in related disciplines.
─Edward J. Kennelly, PhD, and Amy C. Keller
Reprinted from the ASP Newsletter, Volume 46, Issue 2, with permission.
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