Educations / Professional Experience

Educations

1993

Ph.D. Genetics ,University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, USA

1985

B.S. Food Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

Current Position

2022/8 -

Institute director, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University

2009 -

Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University

Professional Experience

2004 - 2009

Associate Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung  University , Tainan, Taiwan

2012 - 2013

Visiting Scholar, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego

2007/6 - 2007/6

Visiting Scholar, Dr. Carlo Croce's Lab, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA .

1999 - 2004

Assistant Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan

1998 - 1999

Visiting Research Associate, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, U.S.A

1996 - 1997

Postdoctoral Fellow, Walther Oncology Center, Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN, U.S.A.

1993 - 1996

Postdoctoral Fellow, J. L. Pettis Memorial VAMC, Loma Linda, CA, U.S.A.

1989 - 1990

Teaching Assistant for Genetics, Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, U.S.A.

1987 - 1993

Research Assistant, Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, U.S.A.

1986 - 1993

Graduate Student, Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, U.S.A.

1985 - 1986

Research Associate, Panlabs, Inc., Taipei, Taiwan

Expertise /Research Interests

Molecular biology, tumor biology, angiogenesis, oral carcinogenesis, and wound repair

Research Interests

Angiogenesis, formation of new blood vessels from existing endothelium, is essential for formation of mature vasculature and organogenesis during animal development, wound repair and female reproductive cycle in adults. This complex process involves basal lamina dissolution, migration, proliferation and differentiation of endothelial cells. Dysregulation of angiogenesis has been associated with tumor formation and metastasis and certain skin diseases. W focus on studying the molecular mechanism underlying these two diseases, and the altered activity of angiogenesis a other stromal components in the development of either disease. Our ultimate goal is facilitating the development of theranostic targets for oral cancer and inflammation related skin diseases.

Research

Directions

My research interests are divided into three parts:

First: Oral cancer and esophageal cancer are, respectively, the 5^th and 9th leading causes of cancer death in Taiwan. More than 90% of each cancer types are squamous cell carcinoma. Each year there would be more than 10,000 individuals suffering from the comorbidity of both oral and esophageal cancer and 5,300 of them would succumb to either cancer in Taiwan.  The underlying mechanism for the comorbidity remains elusive. More and more studies showed that the crosstalk between tumor cells and stromal cells including endothelial cells in the same microenvironment plays a key role in cancer progression and metastasis, and even the development of drug resistance.  We will adopt molecular and cellular biology, high through genomics, proteomics and metabolomics approaches to address the molecular mechanism of oral-esophageal carcinogenesis and the interplay between cancer and stromal cells in tumor microenvironment using cultured cells, experimental animals and clinical specimens.

Second: Since cancer is now known to be a never-healed wound, we will also use genetic manipluation to study the role of our candidate genes in puncture-induced wound healing using both molecular and cellular approaches.

Third: We will evaluate the possibility of using drug repurposing for treating both human pathologies.