Marcus Chen is Adjunct Professor at the Central Clinical School, Monash University. He is a specialist in sexual health medicine at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health. Chen is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine. 

Chen’s research has focused on improving the management and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Since receiving his PhD in 2006, he has published over 300 papers in peer reviewed journals, with 240 of these published in the last 10 years. His papers have been cited 8500 times and he has an H-Index of 49. Chen has been an investigator on research grants totalling $27 million. He is currently lead investigator on an NHMRC Partnership Project grant (2021-2026) which aims to design and evaluate innovative approaches to testing and control of syphilis in the context of syphilis epidemics in Australia and other countries.

Chen was chair of the STI subcommittee of the Australian Government Ministerial Advisory Committee on Blood Born Viruses and STIs (2015-2018). He was a member of the working group for the 3^rd Australian National STI Strategy and chair of the Australasian contact tracing guidelines. Chen has served on several national and state committees responsible for developing policy on gonorrhoea and syphilis control. Chen led the development of the online contact tracing service Let Them Know, which has been used by 140,000 individuals diagnosed with STIs to contact partners. He has led the establishment of the hub and spoke model of sexual health services after this was recommended by the Victorian Government Review of Sexual Health Services in 2019.

Chen has been plenary speaker at several international conferences including the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV Conference 2018 and the European International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections Conference 2019. In 2011 Chen received the Award for Significant Contribution to Sexual Health Medicine, and in 2019, the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research in Sexual Health Medicine from the Australasian Chapter for Sexual Health Medicine.

Recent publication highlights:

Williamson D, Chen M. Emerging and re-emerging sexually transmitted infections. New England Journal of Medicine 2020; 382: 2023-32.

Towns J…Chen M. Oral and anal Treponema pallidum detection in men who have sex with men with early infectious syphilis: a cross-sectional study. Lancet Infectious Diseases (online first).

Peel J…Chen M. Clinical presentation of incident syphilis among men who have sex with men taking HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Melbourne, Australia. Clinical Infectious Diseases (online first).

Chow E…Chen M. Fall in human papillomavirus in young men who have sex with men after the implementation of gender-neutral HPV vaccination: a repeated cross-sectional study. Lancet Infectious Diseases (in press).

Chen M…Oldach D. Solithromycin versus ceftriaxone plus azithromycin for the treatment of uncomplicated genital gonorrhoea: a randomised phase 3 non-inferiority trial. Lancet Infectious Diseases 2019; 19: 833-42.

Williamson D…Chen M & Howden B. Bridging of Neisseria gonorrhoeae lineages across sexual networks in the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis era. Nature Communications 2019; 10: 3988.

Chow E…Chen M. Increased syphilis testing of men who have sex with men: greater detection of asymptomatic early syphilis and relative reduction in secondary syphilis. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2017; 65(3): 389-95.

Machalek DA…Chen M & Tabrizi S. Human papillomavirus prevalence in unvaccinated heterosexual males following a national female vaccination program. Journal of Infectious Diseases 2017; 215: 202-8.

Leeyaphan C…Chen M. Systematic review and meta-analysis of doxycycline efficacy for rectal lymphogranuloma venereum in men who have sex with men. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2016; 22(10): 1778-84.