News
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PRDM1/Blimp-1 Directs Germ Cell versus Neural Cell Pathway. During Early Human Embryonic Differentiation
In search for the root cause of human diseases related to gene deregulation has not been easy.
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New Development of Universal Flu Vaccine
Throughout the year WHO Centers for Reference and Research on Influenza analyze virus isolates from patients around the world and made recommendation of which circulating influenza strains will be appropriate for seasonal vaccines. Still, with all these preventive measurements, influenza epidemics continue to be a threat to the public health.
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When Lingzhi, B Cell and Globo H Meet
The lingzhi mushroom, or referred to as reishi mushroom in Japan, has been used as a medicinal mushroom in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years, many believe it as a regulator to human immune system as well as its potential in treating cancers.
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Milestone Check of Carbohydrate-based Vaccine Developments
For a decade of persevere investigation, the team focusing on carbohydrate-based vaccines development led by Dr. Chi-Huey Wong and Dr. Chung-Yi Wu has been publishing exciting progress reports periodically. Their work has a core scientific concept, which is, on the surfaces of most cancerous cells or the pathogen membrane, it is bound to find uncommon sugar molecules; as long as such a sugar molecular can be identified being uniquely associated with a particular disease, and there is a way to trigger the human immune system to respond to it and produce penetrating antibodies, then, by leveraging the nature’s way, vaccines can be built by mimicking the sugar molecule to let the body fight off the disease in a much more effective way.
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Blimp-1 is a crucial gatekeeper in epidermal immunity
Blimp-1 is a transcriptional repressor, that is, a protein which can inhibit the expression of genes; it has been demonstrated to be a significant player in the immune system.
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Collaborated Translational Research Tracks Down FUT8 in Lung Cancer
With a persistent quest and clever collaborations, digging clue after clue, a team in Dr. Chi-Huey Wong’s research group has identified the role of FUT8, an enzyme which adds sugar molecules to proteins; their study showed FUT8 matters a LOT in human nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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Location Matters
DNA methylation is already a known key factor that attributes to the gene expression, namely, its presence has a direct correlation between regarding gene being “turned on” or not, therefore, it has become quite a marker for epigenetic study.
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A Breakthrough in Carbohydrate-Based Vaccine: One Vaccine Targets Three Unique glycan Epitopes on Cancer Cells and Cancer Stem Cells
A cure for breast cancer may be in sight! The GRC research team has been studying carbohydrate antigens on the surface of cancer cells and cancer stem cells for years. Lately, a published paper on PNAS reports their new finding of some special carbohydrates.
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Strike on the Drug Resistance Problems of Influenza Infections
Tamiflu, an orally available drug targeting influenza neuraminidase, has been used widely in clinics for treating influenza virus infections. Over the years of usage, influenza viruses have developed resistance over Tamiflu.
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Negatively Charged Gold Nanoparticles Proved to Ease the Accumulation of Proteins Causing Alzheimer’s Disease
A new gold rush in the biotech world has been underway, studies of gold particles in nano scales have been applied to researches from cancer treatments to bio-imaging technologies. Now, a collaborated study led by Dr. Ruby Chen may have just added another possible application to this precious metal that we humans treasure from way back.
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A Brave New Way to Tackle the Hepatitis C Viral Problem
By pushing the boundaries and thinking out of the box, Dr. Tien-Hsien Chang demonstrates once again what a scientific spirit is all about.
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Lin’s Lab Unravels the Pathway of Plasma Cells
There are millions variations of B cells, and when a certain type of B cells are called on duty, their mission is to make specific plasma cells, which act as sole purpose factories focusing on making a specific type of antibodies.
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Potential Dengue Fever Treating Antibody - Proved Effective for Japanese Encephalitis Viral Infections
CLEC5A is a C-type lectin expressed on the cell surface known to be a receptor which is used by the Dengue virus (DV) to attach themselves to of the host cells during infection. It also induces massive proinflammatory cytokines subsequently in an infected host. The blocking of the CLEC5A interaction with DV has been one of the research interests in Dr. Shie-Liang Hsieh’s group.
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Last Piece of the Bacterial Transglycosylase Puzzle Solved
Peptidoglycan is a major component of the bacterial cell wall and essential for bacteria to survive. Bacterial transpeptidase and transglycosylase on the cell surface are the two key enzymes responsible for making peptidoglycan.
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Specific Glycosphingolipids identified for Differentiation Precursors of Human Embryonic Stem Cells
In the pursuit of surface glycosphingolipids (GSLs) markers during the lineage-specific differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), the team led by Dr. John Yu has made another major discovery of specific GSLs associated with differentiations of early embryonic cells toward specific progenitors of neural or endodermal cell types.
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Genomics Research Center Team Succeeds in Oligosialic Acid Synthesis, Brings Totally Synthetic Antibacterial Vaccine One Step Closer
Polysialic acids are useful in the development of antibacterial vaccines because they can be conjugated (joined) to a carrier protein as a vaccine to be administered to humans to induce a bactericidal effect. Up until now the polysaccharides used in vaccines have been isolated from pathogenic bacteria, but due to the difficulty in purification, vaccines may consist of polysaccharides of various lengths and possibly be contaminated with other antigenic components.
