NTU Bio-Tech

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Introduction
This institute has been established in August 2006 and began to enroll PhD students since that academic year. The mission of this institute is to provide great research and teaching environment for the following fields that match the directions of our national policies: bioinformatics, nano-biomedical research, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, genomics and proteomics. 

Implication of Logo
DNA is at the center of life. Many studies on life science or development in biotechnology depend largely on unraveling it. Genomic approach thus forms the intersection core among the 3 fields of plant, animal, and microbial biotech in this institute. The microbe in the leaf indicates plant-microbe interactions. The woman head represents the animal and medical fields. The boxes are symbolic for microarray results and represent the bioinformatics. These symbols linked together indicate cross-disciplinary researches that are flourishingly developing in this institute.

Interview of Assistant Professor, Dr. Shu-Han, Yu
Today we interviewed our new faculty, Dr. Shu-Han Yu, who has immuno-oncology, immune modulation, tumor microenvironment, and microbiome professional with 9+ years of academic research experience and 4+ years of industrial experience. She has committed to transforming expertise in translational medicine into non-small-cell lung cancer precision medicine, microbiome profiling, biomarker discovery, characterization, clinical validation, and potential diagnostics.

Interview of Director, Professor Mong-Hsun Tsai
Today we are very happy to interview the new director of Institute of Biotechnology (IOB), Prof. Mong-Hsun Tsai, to talk about his research journey. Graduated from the Department of Zoology at National Taiwan University (NTU), Prof. Tsai has established solid biology backgrounds. Prof. Tsai then decided to proceed his master at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU). His study mainly focused on radiation and heavy metal (such as arsenic) induced damages in molecular, cellular, and phenotype levels. For Dr. Tsai’s dissertation at National Yang Ming University, he mainly studied health effects of chronic low-dose radiation exposed subjects who lived in Co60-contaminated buildings for more than 10 years in Taiwan. Dr. Tsai stayed in NIH for 4 years and came back to NTU as an assistant professor in 1996. Prof. Tsai has been employing biochips and bioinformatics tools for agriculture applications and to discover specific biomarkers for cancer outcome prediction. 

Interview of Professor Jen-Chih Chen
Our interviewee today is Prof Jen-Chih Chen, driving by his curiosity, he is now an associate professor in the Institute of Biotechnology (IOB), and his research expertise includes plant defense, molecular biology, as well as bioenergy.

From the interview, we can feel that Dr. Chen is full of curiosity. He is interested in all sorts of biological phenomena, and enjoys dissecting them. He may have changed his research focus to animal studies, but through searching and experiencing, he returned to his beloved plant science. He told us to keep on trying new things and new ways, and by doing so, we may be able to find something really surprising. Of course, there are always challenges, and keeping on trying and enriching your knowledge should carry you a long way during your research.

Interview of Professor Chi-Te Liu
Today we invite Dr. Chi-Te Liu, an associate professor of the Institute of Biotechnology (IOB), to share his journey of research and development. Dr. Liu’s research interests focus on S.E.A, i.e. Symbiosis (Microbe-Plant interactions), Environmental microbiology, and Agricultural biotechnology. The current projects in his lab including (1) development of multifunctional PGPR agents (biofertilizers & biopesticides), (2) exploring the molecular mechanisms of plant-microbe interactions, (3) biodegradation of synthetic plastics, and (4) employing soil-based microbial batteries for sustainable agriculture and energy.Today we invite Dr. Chi-Te Liu, an associate professor of the Institute of Biotechnology (IOB), to share his journey of research and development. Dr. Liu’s research interests focus on S.E.A, i.e. Symbiosis (Microbe-Plant interactions), Environmental microbiology, and Agricultural biotechnology. The current projects in his lab including (1) development of multifunctional PGPR agents (biofertilizers & biopesticides), (2) exploring the molecular mechanisms of plant-microbe interactions, (3) biodegradation of synthetic plastics, and (4) employing soil-based microbial batteries for sustainable agriculture and energy.

中研院李遠哲前院長蒞臨演講

Interview of Professor Je-Ruei Liu
Today we invite Dr. Je-Ruei Liu, professor of the Institute of Biotechnology (IOB) and vice dean of College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture, to share his journey of research. With the fast-pace of modern lifestyle, dietary habits are characterized by erratic eating patterns . Malnutrition, unhealthy diet, smoking, stress and so on, are the presentations of unhealthy life lifestyle. Unwanted diseases and afflictions arise from such dietary habits. Obesity is on the rise and has become a chronic problem, along with aging, diabetes, as well as high blood pressure. Another issue in the modern lifestyle is the declining birth rate. More and more people choose to have pets. Yet the number of overweight and obese in our furry family members also is a growing concern. Professor Je-Ruei Liu has been engaged in research on obesity related topics for many years, hoping to apply natural products to delay aging, to reduce pet weight, and to promote healthier diets for our pets.
 

Interview of Professor Li-Ying, Sung
Professor Sung is an expert in SCNT and among the first to report cloned mice using terminally differentiated postmitotic granulocytes, followed by efficient derivation of mouse ntESCs. Her team also cloned cattle and rabbits before.  She excels in embryonic technologies, such as SCNT, pronuclear microinjection, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, blastocyst injection, oocyte and embryo cryopreservation, as well as iPSC technology. Her research interests are embryology, developmental biology, stem cell biology, as well as development of novel animal models to study human diseases including infertility. She is also applying these modern tools to save endangered animals.

Interview of Professor Kuan-Chen Cheng
Being a professor in both Institute of Biotechnology (IOB) and Institute of Food Sciences and
Technology (FST) at National Taiwan University, Prof Cheng proofs his doubtlessly research
experiences in the areas of microbial bioprocessing, fermentation and biotechnology. His
laboratory currently focusing on four major topics which are bioactivity of medical mushroom,
Wine making and brewing, Development of Senior’s Food, and Biotechnology.

Interview of Professor Shih-Shun Lin
Birds migrate south for winter. Fishes swim to their ideal water current. Unlike animals, plants are not able to move freely forces the plants to adapt to the environment. It is a pleasure to invite Prof. Shih-Shun Lin from the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology and Virology to talk about gene regulation mechanisms that help the plants to survive from environmental adversity and disease invasion.
 
 
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Ph. D. student Li-Kuang Tsai, guided by Professor Li-Ying Sung, and a team from the University of Michigan published their collaborative research in Cell and Bioscience

  • 2023-11-21
  • Admin Admin
Telomere syndrome, a term encompassing various manifestations resulting from the rapid shortening of telomeres due to telomerase deficiency, includes dyskeratosis congenita, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and bone marrow failure. Currently, there is no effective treatment for Telomere syndrome. Professor Li-Ying Sung's research team, in a long-standing collaboration with Professor Eugene Chen (Director) and Professor Jie Xu from the University of Michigan Medical Center (UMMC), has been dedicated to studying Telomere syndrome using mouse models. The goal is to enhance the understanding of telomere mechanisms by combining research resources and providing effective strategies for future disease treatments.
ZSCAN4, as an alternative lengthening of telomere (ALT) pathway activator, has a high potential for developing strategies to treat Telomere syndrome. However, although Zscan4 has been reported for more than a decade, the molecular mechanism is still unclear, which directly hindering the clinical and research application of ZSCAN4. Ph.D. student Li-Kuang Tsai, the lead researcher in this international collaborative project, discovered a crucial interaction between the key DNA repair protein PARP1 and ZSCAN4, moreover, Tsai's research revealed that the second alpha-helix and the fourth zinc finger motif of ZSCAN4 are essential interaction motifs to interact with PARP1 protein. These sites are crucial for ZSCAN4's involvement in DNA double-strand break repair. These results have been published in the prestigious SCI journal, Cell and Bioscience (Impact Factor 7.5 in 2022) (Tsai et al. ZSCAN4 interacts with PARP1 to promote DNA repair in mouse embryonic stem cells. Cell & Bioscience, 2023 Oct 24;13(1):193. doi: 10.1186/s13578-023-01140-1), serving as a significant encouragement to the international collaboration team.
In the subsequent research, Li-Kuang Tsai discovered that PARP1 is also involved in the mechanism of ZSCAN4 in elongating telomeres in mouse embryonic stem cells. The completion of this study not only establishes the connection between ZSCAN4 and the key DNA repair protein PARP1 but also contribute to the future development of strategies focused on ZSCAN4 for Telomere syndrome treatment.
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