Investigators at the University of Chicago’s Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research are scientifically verifying the effects of herbs, including those have been used in the Far East for centuries and are now becoming more popular in the United States. Researchers have already uncovered some possible benefits and serious side effects of herbal remedies.

Researchers at the Tang Center continue the long tradition of academic medicine at the University of Chicago. Chun-Su Yuan, MD, PhD, Director of the Center, follows the philosophy: “The most important thing is to make discoveries to benefit our patients.” Researchers in the Tang Center will not only target specific herbs or diseases, but will also see where their basic research on different aspects of herbal medicine leads them.

The Tang Center opened at the University of Chicago in early 2000, thanks to a generous large gift from the Cyrus Tang Foundations and the Tang Foundations for Research of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Tang Foundations were founded by Cyrus Tang, President and CEO of Tang Industries, Inc., a diversified holding company that includes industrial, pharmaceutical, furniture, and real estate holdings.