Joachim Prackwieser 周勤
Contact info: joachim.prackwieser [at] charite.de
Collaborator
Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin
Working group: Digital Humanities
Joachim Prackwieser is a long-time research associate at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and a doctoral researcher since 2024, working at the intersection of the history of medicine, data science, and pharmaceutical research. His work investigates the potential of constructing and analyzing large-scale datasets of pharmaceutical recipes from historical Chinese medical collections in order to explore experiential knowledge as a form of intelligent preselection for modern drug development.
Since 2017, he has been one of the principal co-developers of the Chinese Historical Healthcare Manuscripts Database (CHHM-DB) at the Institute of Chinese Life Sciences. CHHM-DB comprises more than 41,000 pharmaceutical recipes digitized from 227 handwritten volumes. These manuscripts document vernacular medical practices from the sixteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries that have largely been marginalized within modern formulations of Chinese medicine. Across successive research projects, Joachim has employed CHHM-DB to address a range of research questions with relevance for modern applications.
He is currently the principal investigator of a 1.5-year industry-funded project entitled “Salty and Umami Modulating Compounds Leveraging Ancient Prescriptions.”
Within the Vernacular Knowledge project, his primary interest lies in foregrounding historical perspectives, particularly questions concerning the circulation and transformation of knowledge between handwritten and printed medical recipe collections over time.
Joachim holds a BA in Sinology and Political Economics from Heidelberg University and an MA in Chinese Studies from Freie Universität Berlin. In addition to his academic training, he is a professionally trained web developer and data analyst.