9 June 2004
Returning home
A Professor of Cardiology who graduated from the University of Dundee in 1985 has returned to take up
a key appointment in the University and the City that he always planned to return to.
Professor Chim Lang is an expert on cardiovascular disease and will be working with the TICR team (The
Institute for Cardiovascular Research) after 10 years building up experience at Columbia University in
New York City as a Fulbright Scholar, Vanderbilt University and as Deputy Dean of Medicine at the
University of Malaya.
Professor Lang will be conducting his research in the new flagship Centre for Clinical Research at the
University's Medical School. He set up a similar research facility at the University of Malaya and was
one of the key people in establishing the standards and procedures for research and clinical practice in
the facility. He will be bringing his experience to the new centre in Dundee.
Central to Chim Lang's research will be improving quality of life for heart failure patients. He says:
"Research up until now has concentrated on improving life chances for those with heart failure disease.
This is vitally important but I want to take that a step further now and use the expertise of the
Institute for Cardiovascular Research to improve the quality of life of people with heart failure disease
looking into why they become short of breath and easily fatigued and seeing how we can help them."
Chim Lang graduated in medicine from the University of Dundee in 1985 and lectured here until 1993.
Prof Lang will also use the new facilities in the Centre for Clinical Research to investigate the
endothelium - the layer of cells lining our blood vessels that are important for the health of arteries.
Until now, research on the endothelium has all been done on tissue from the forearm as that has been the
most accessible. With new ultrasound technology, Chim is going to get to the root of the problem and
examine the endothelium in the coronary arteries to see how he can improve the health of the heart. He
will also be examining diabetic patients who are at higher risk from heart disease to see if he can
discover how their endothelium is affected by coronary disease.
Chim's wife, Ana Maria who is also a cardiologist will be joining him next month in the Medical School as
a senior lecturer and bringing their two children to settle in Dundee.
Prof Lang said: "My wife and I have always planned to return to Dundee. There is a real buzz about the
place, both in terms of the research at the University and all that's going on in the City. Dundee is the
world's best kept secret."
For further information please contact the Press office on 01382 344021
By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk | 
