Dr Ray Chen [ National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, U.S. National Institutes of Health]

Host: Prof Robert Wilkinson [IDM/CIDRI-Africa]

Ray Chen is an associate research physician/staff clinician in the Tuberculosis Research Section (TRS) of the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr Chen graduated from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, then trained in Internal Medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB, he also earned a Masters of Science in Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology.

Dr Chen has worked for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2003 and was based in Beijing, China from 2004-2012, where he administered the larger NIAID research projects in China, primarily in HIV, influenza, and tuberculosis. He worked with U.S. and Chinese investigators to develop clinical research infrastructure at research sites, conduct clinical trials to international standards, and analyse data and publish research results. Since 2012, Dr Chen has been in the Tuberculosis Research Section, Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, Division of Intramural Research at the NIAID. He leads the TRS clinical research team in conducting clinical trials in China and South Africa on new treatment and diagnostic methods for drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis. He has co-authored over 45 articles published in peer-reviewed journals.