Michael Heinrich

Michael Heinrich is a Professor of Ethnopharmacology and Medicinal Plant Research (Pharmacognosy) at the UCL School of Pharmacy (from 1999 – 2011School of Pharmacy – Univ London) and was until 2017 the head of the research cluster ‘Biodiversity and Medicines’ at the UCL School of Pharmacy. From 2017 until 2023 he served as the joint chair of UCL’s Research Ethics Committee (with Dr. L. Ang, Institute of Education, UCL). For many years the group’s (currently five PhD students and one postdoc) research has been based on a transdisciplinary and translational perspective integrating approaches from the natural and social sciences with an overall aim of tackling the fast-changing global health needs. After initial research on traditional medicine, most notably in México, I developed a strong research focus on anti-inflammatory agents. Since 2000 he has developed diverse research collaborations in China, Thailand and other Asian countries focusing on the pharmacological effects and quality of herbal medicines. In both cases the use of plant metabolomics proved to be a very successful tool for analysing the complexity of these products.