研究員 / 本院分生所

EDUCATION AND POSITIONS HELD:

• Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Southern California, (1988)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, (1988- 1992)
• Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica (1992- 2000)
• Research Fellow, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica (2000- present)

HONORS:

• Young Investigator Award, Academia Sinica (1998)
• Outstanding Research Award, National Science Council, ROC (1999, 2003)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Structural and Functional Studies of Non-specific Nucleases in Cell Defense

Yuan's laboratory focuses on the structural and functional studies of several non-specific nucleases involved in cell defense by biochemical, molecular biological and X-ray crystallographic methods. These nucleases take part in cell defense by degrading foreign nucleic acid molecules in a sequence-independent manner to protect the intactness of host genomes. In prokaryotes, the periplasmic nuclease Vvn and the secreted nuclease ColE7 are two such examples, which degrade foreign nucleic acid molecules in the host cell wall and in the cytoplasm of foreign cells, respectively. In eukaryotes, several apoptotic nucleases function in comparable ways to that of ColE7 and Vvn have been discovered recently in programmed cell death. Functional and structural insight into this group of non-specific nucleases will be valuable for developing strategies to promote or suppress cell survival machinery in bacterial, oncogenic or virus-infected cells.

非專一性的核酸水解酶在細胞生存與凋亡中所扮演的角色

微生物體內有一些非專一性的核酸水解酶參與細胞防衛，負責水解外來入侵的核醣核酸分子。我們的研究工作運用生化、分生和X光晶體繞射方法，來了解這一類的核酸水解酶的功能是怎麼被抑制又怎麼被啟動，他們如何達成與DNA/RNA不具序列專一性的辨識結合，以及如何分解DNA/RNA。高等生物細胞中也有一些非專一性的核酸水解酶，擔任著維護基因體穩定的工作，讓細胞能正常運作，不受外來基因的干擾。了解這些原核或真核核酸水解酶的作用機制，將有助於研發阻止細菌或細胞生存的方法。