Lixing Lao - Society for Acupuncture Research

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Lixing Lao, PhD, MB, LAc

Board Member

Professor and President, Virginia University of Integrative Medicine - Fairfax, VA

Board Bio

Lixing Lao is a professor and the President of the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine (VUIM), and honorary professor, University of Hong Kong.

He was trained in acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 1978 to 1983 and earned his PhD in physiology at the University of Maryland Baltimore in 1992 . He served as a board member of SAR and Co-president of SAR for five years (2003-2007) and Advisory Board member of SAR (2013-2020), Prior to his current position in VUIM, he was a Professor of Family Medicine and the Director of Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Program in the Center for Integrative Medicine of the School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). He was then appointed as a professor and the Director of the School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2019 when he also held a Vivian Taaam Wong Endowed Professorship in Integrative Medicine. As a licensed acupuncturist in both Maryland and Virginia, Prof Lao has practiced acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines for over 30 years and served as a Board member for five years on the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture. He is principal investigator and co-investigator of over 20 clinical trials and pre-clinical studies in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense, USA. He is particularly interested in conducting translational research that bridges basic science, clinical trials, and "real world" acupuncture/Chinese medicine clinical practice. He established the laboratory of TCM research in UMB in 1999 to conduct basic science studies on acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines. He has actively published over 330 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 20 book chapters. He has also given over 400 presentations at national and international conferences/symposia. He serves on editorial boards in a number of journals. He is currently an elected vice president of the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies (WFAS) and immediately past Secretary General of the Consortium for Globalization of Chinese Medicine (CGCM). He received an award of Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service in Chinese Medicine by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in 2019.