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Dr. Chow is Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Hospital. He retired from clinical practice, teaching and administration in July 2006.
Dr. Chow received his MD from the University of Manitoba in 1967. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine in Winnipeg, Manitoba, subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases, and a clinical/research fellowship at Harbor-UCLA, Torrance, CA. He joined UCLA as an Assistant Professor in 1972, rising to the rank of Associate Professor in 1977. In 1979, he became Professor and founding Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UBC and Vancouver Hospital, a position he held until 1993. In 1994, Dr. Chow began a second career in the promotion of translational research, and the development of clinician scientists in Canada. He directed the highly acclaimed MD/PhD Program at UBC, and spearheaded the unique CIHR Strategic Training Program for Translational Research in Infectious Disease (TRID) that actively promoted collaborative research from bench to bedside and population. His own research interests include the role of anaerobic bacteria in health and disease, structure/function of staphylococcal superantigens, and the molecular pathogenesis of staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome. He held a CIHR operating grant continuously since 1978 until his retirement. He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and is co-recipient of several US and international patents on the use of the 60 kDa heat shock protein (HSP60) gene sequences as universal targets for infectious disease diagnosis and microbial species identification. He has supervised over 70 postdoctoral clinical and research fellows, and numerous undergraduate summer research and co-operative students as well as Masters and PhD graduate students.
Dr. Chow has been a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) since 1976. He was a member of the Antibiotic Use and Clinical Trials Committee of IDSA (1994-97), and past chair of the Respiratory Tract Infections Subcommittee of the FDA/IDSA Advisory Committee on New Drug Submissions (1988-92). He was a member of the Steering Committee for the Bureau of Infection Control, Health and Welfare Canada, and past Coordinator of the Vancouver and Victoria node of the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network Centres of Excellence. Since retirement, Dr. Chow has continued to be active in knowledge acquisition and translation of infectious diseases nationally and internationally. He currently serves on the University-Industry Peer Review Committee of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and is a consultant to the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada. He is actively engaged in the development of several clinical practice guidelines for both the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of Canada. As well, he serves on the clinical and scientific advisory boards of several pharmaceutical companies for new drug discovery, and the editorial boards of several international journals in infection and immunity.