[5] Lau was raised at Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, living upstairs from his father's metalworking workshop.
[5] Lau returned to the University of Dundee in 1988 for a Doctor of Medicine (MD), which in the UK is a research degree, graduating in 1993.
From 1995 to 2007, he was an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Department of Medicine at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.
After returning from his tenure at the University of Dundee, he reprised the role of Honorary Consultant in Medicine/Rheumatology at the Department of Medicine at Queen Mary Hospital, a position he held between 1997 and 2007.
He founded the Hong Kong Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation in 2001,[28] and co-founded the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration in 2011.
[30] In July 2022, the new Chief Executive of Hong Kong John Lee appointed Lau as a new member of the COVID-19 Expert Advisory Panel.
[37] He also handed over the position of Chairperson of the HKU Department of Medicine to Hung Fat Tse,[38] and stepped down as the Clinical Stream Coordinator (Medical) at Queen Mary Hospital.
[39][40] Lau was officially appointed the Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine on 28 November 2023.
[45] As interim then official Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, Lau has been an ex-officio member of the Medical and Health Services sector of the Election Committee of Hong Kong since 2022.