Professor Lam is a general clinical biochemist who has published over 450 papers widely in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Nephrology, Lipidology, Diabetology and Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Toxicology, and Chinese Medicine accruing an h-index of 42 for impact and citations. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, Professor Lam developed a postulate that many acute infections and chronic illnesses are in fact communication diseases caused by cytokine and chemokine aberrations resulting in deranged intercellular communication and intracellular signal transduction. This new concept in laboratory medicine has enhanced understanding of the messenger and message pathology of acute and chronic diseases, with clinical applications in patient care via using cytokines and chemokines for monitoring and their antibodies (e.g. anti-TNF antibody) for treatment. For this contribution Professor Lam was conferred the IFCC Distinguished Award in Laboratory Medicine and Patient Care in 2008 (IFCC = International Federation of Clinical Biochemistry). His other honors include the APFCB Silver Jubilee Distinguished Medal and Award bestowed in 2006 (APFCB = Asian and Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry).

Professor Lam has been active in local, regional and international services in Clinical Biochemistry. He has served as the Secretary, President, Chief Examiner and Chairman of the Board of Accreditation for the Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry (1987-2001); Secretary and President of APFCB (1994-2004); Executive Board Member (1999-2005) and Vice President cum Chairman of the Awards Committee of IFCC (2009-2011). He has been Visiting Professor in China for (1) the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (301 Hospital) and Postgraduate Medical School (Beijing, since 2000); (2) Chongqing Medical University (Chongqing, since 2000), (3) China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Beijing, since 2009), and (4) Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan, since 2010). His traveling lectureships comprise (1) the Roman Traveling Lectureship of the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (7 state capital cities, 2002), APFCB Traveling Lectureship (8 Asian-Pacific countries, 2006), and IFCC Traveling Lectureship to the EFCC (European Federation of Clinical Chemistry, 2008), for which he presented The Laboratory Medicine of Infectious Diseases and Cybernetics of Cytokines and Chemokines: Pathophysiology and Clinical Applications along a stretch of the River Danube in Croatia, Hungry and the Czech Republic - in exchange for concert tickets for him and his wife in the evenings.

Clinical Biochemistry is real-life biochemistry. Professor Lam has recently undertaken a keen research interest into Largo meaning Front Place or Front Square in Portuguese. In Macau there is a largo for every venue: Largo do Senado (front square of the city council), do Bazar (city market), do Cais (pier), do Alfanega (customs and immigration), do Lilau (of the well of old woman), and even do Matadouro (abattoir), just to name a few. Professor Lam believes that there must have been very substantial real-life activities occurring in these largos advancing culture and civilization. They might be folk-dancing and singing, courting and romance, soccer and other sports, or even quarrels and fights, mostly resulting in a happy ending. Being a quiet and humble person, Professor Lam loves to sit smilingly by a largo and observe the world goes by. He is also keen in enrolling into a tuition course of the Portuguese language every Tuesday and Thursday evening, but so far has not had time and energy to do so.