Distinguished Research Fellow / Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica

EDUCATION AND POSITIONS HELD:

• B.S., Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 1972
• Ph.D, Biochemistry & Medicinal Chemistry, Purdue University, 1978
• Kimberly Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biochemistry, The Ohio State University (starting 1981 as Assistant Professor)
• Director, Office of Research Campus Chemical Instrument Center, The Ohio State University, 1993-present
• Director, Chemistry/Biology Interface Training Program, OSU, 1995?003
• Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center Proteomics Shared Resource, OSU

HONORS:

• Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, 1983-1985
• Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, 1985-1990
• Distinguished Scholar Award, The Ohio State University, 1992
• Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1992
• Co-chair, Gordon Conference on Enzymes, 1993
• Board of Consulting Editors, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 1998-present
• President, Chinese American Chemical Society, 2003

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

The main research program of Tsai lab focuses on proteins involved in cell cycle progression that are closely related with cancer and virus infection. Our structure and function studies on INK, CDK4, and Chk2 proteins shed great light on the mechanisms underlying some cancer diseases, while our enzymological characterizations of human and viral polymerases empower us to further understand the DNA damage response and repair at DNA level. Development of inhibitors and activators for cell cycle promoter (CDK4) and suppressor (Chk2) proteins, and the establishment of a novel in vitro and in vivo combined method to identify and investigate the binding targets for cancer-related proteins are being employed for the discovery of potential therapeutic approaches.