Michael Shing-Hing Lau 劉承鑫

  • Croucher Cambridge International Scholarship in 2013 at University of Cambridge

Michael obtained his MSci in Chemistry with a Year in Industry at Imperial College London, where he was awarded a first class honour degree. During his placement year, Michael worked as an Industrial Trainee at International Paint Ltd., AkzoNobel, where he investigated the development of new marine biocidal antifouling polymers. His final year research project studied the total synthesis of Pseudopterosin A-F, iso-E and Z Aglycone under the guidance of Prof. Donald Craig.

During his undergraduate studies, Michael also received the IC/UCL research studentship in Catalysis. Under the co-supervision of Dr Silvia Díez-González and Dr Tom Sheppard, he worked on the development of an acid-catalysed nucleophilic substitution reaction of propargylic alcohols

Having been awarded the Croucher Cambridge International Scholarship in October 2013, Michael pursued his PhD in Synthetic Chemistry at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Steven V. Ley CBE FRS. Michael's PhD research focused on the development of API syntheses (OZ439 and a Precursor to Sacubitril) as well as developing robust and scalable chemistry with the use of enabling technologies for potential industrial applications. Moreover, Michael also co-developed new metal-free carbon-carbon homologation reactions using diazo compounds and boronic species to prepare homoallylic alcohols, functionalised indoles and TMS-pinacol boronic esters.

Following the completion of his academic studies, Michael became a management consultant at London office, ZS Associates, focusing on assisting pharmaceutical companies to develop and implement market access strategies for a range of launched & pre-launched drugs. In August 2019, Michael moved back to his motherland Hong Kong, and acted as an Assistant Professor at Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, teaching undergraduate chemistry courses.

Currently

Michael is the founder of Prokentide Biotechnology Ltd, a startup that is missioned to elevate our customer's health and quality of life via developing and providing innovative peptide based consumer healthcare products.