Professor Narattaphol Charoenphandhu, M.D., Ph.D.

     The ultimate goal of Dr. Narattaphol’s work is to answer the question of – how to help people have strong and healthy bone? This question should bring awareness to the future risk that comes with aging population. Aging is accompanied by degenerative diseases, especially metabolic bone diseases which are expensive to treat and eventually lead to morbidity and mortality. To achieve this goal, Dr. Narattaphol and his colleagues use various multidisciplinary approaches, e.g., organ transplantation, electrophysiology, radionuclide tracer, bone histomorphometry, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, computed tomography, synchrotron-assisted imaging, confocal fluorescent imaging, molecular cloning, bioinformatics, biophysics and nanoscience, to elucidate in depth the calcium-regulating machinery. He has proposed a novel theory pertaining to the transepithelial calcium transport in the intestine, as well as the optimal calcium concentration for effective calcium absorption. His findings can be directly applied to improve forms of calcium-fortified tablets and calcium-enriched diet, and to mitigate osteopenia or osteoporosis in patients with chronic metabolic acidosis or in lactating women.

• Associate Fellow of the Royal Society of Thailand (AFRST)