特聘研究員 / 本院生醫所

EDUCATION AND POSITIONS HELD:

• Ph.D., Physics, Brandeis University (1979).
• Postdoctoral Fellow. National Magnet Laboratory, M.I.T.(1979-1982)
• Assistant professor of Physics & adjunct assistant professor of Biochemistry, University of Maine (1982 – 1986)
• Associate professor of Physics and Member of the Center for Biotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology (1986 – 1993)Research Fellow, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica (1991 – present)
• Professor, Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University (2002 – present)
• Director, High-field Macromolecular NMR Core Facility of the National Research Program for Genomic Medicine (2000 – present)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

We employ state-of-the-art high field nuclear magnetic resonance and other physico-chemical and molecular biology techniques to investigate the structure, dynamics, folding, and functions of proteins, focusing on those that have important pathological consequences. Our long-term goal is to design effective drugs targeting on our selected protein systems. Our current interests include: Molecular basis of the catalytic mechanism of E. coli thioesterase/protease I (TEP-I) (a serine protease); Structure, function, folding and disease basis of human branched-chain a-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKD) (Deficiency in BCKD complex causes maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) with severe clinical consequences, including acidosis, neurological derangement and mental retardation); Structure and functional mechanism of hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) - a mitogenic agent toward various cell lines and was also implicated in gastric cancer and in the development of vascular tissue, kidney and liver; SARS coronavirus nucleocapsid protein (N), an essential structural protein of SARS CoV; Structural genomics of virulent factors of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

(A)	(B)

(A) Structure of the HATH domain of human hepatoma-derived growth factor.

(B) Surface charge distribution of the heparin binding site. Blue indicates positive charge and red color denotes negative charge. Hexasaccharide derived from heparin is shown in stick model.

本實驗室利用最新型低溫超導探頭的超高磁場核磁共振光譜技術(500，600及800兆赫)及多種物理，化學，及分生的方法，研究蛋白質之結構，動性，功能及藥物設計。目前本實驗室專注於以下課題之研究﹕

1. 大腸桿菌第一類硫脂酶/蛋白酶催化作用的分子機制。
2. 人類支鏈甲酮酸脫氫酶(其缺陷會造成楓糖蜜尿病)之結構及與相關蛋白質之作用機制。
3. 肝腫瘤衍生成長因子(和胃癌發生有密切的關連)的結構及作用機制。
4. SARS冠狀病毒核蓋蛋白(N)的結構及其和蛋白質及RNA之交互作用研究。
5. 侵襲性克雷伯氏菌(Klebsiella pneumoniae)病原菌結構基因體學及藥物之設計研究。