Fung Chan is an Aotearoa Foundation Research Fellow with the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland. He returned to New Zealand at the end of 2022 after 8 years of doctoral and postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield, UK, around hyperpolarised xenon-129 and proton lung MRI. In particular, his research was focused on the development and clinical translation of hyperpolarised xenon-129 diffusion-weighted MRI for measuring lung acinar microstructure.

In Fung’s Aotearoa Fellowship he aims to develop new personalised healthcare models of the cardiopulmonary system by integrating novel MRI techniques with computational physiology models. At Mātai, he will be developing new MRI techniques for structural and functional imaging of the lungs of children. These MRI techniques are a promising clinical tool for monitoring paediatric lung diseases without the use of ionising radiation. The goal is to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of lung MRI in New Zealand through collaborative research studies with Mātai and clinicians at Hauora Tairāwhiti.