語言

Current Research Programs

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The major focus of GRC’s research is on the understanding of genes associated with diseases and their functions. Through the new discoveries, new diagnosis tools and therapeutic strategies are to be developed. Emphasis has been placed on the pursuit of fundamental scientific advances through interdisciplinary programs, and the extension of basic discoveries to translational research.

Therefore, we organize three Divisions: Chemical Biology to develop new tools and molecules to target cancer and infectious diseases; Medical Biology to pursue clinical potential for new medicines; and Physical and Computational Genomics to develop data analysis, potential drug prediction, and novel biomedical technologies. In addition to these research Divisions, GRC has also established the BiotechnologyIncubationCenter for pursuing technology transfer and collaboration with peer institutions in order to translate important discoveries into commercial opportunities. Since 2003, eight biotechnology companies have been established based on inventions and cooperation with GRC through technology transfer and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements.

GRC has now built several programs which have a great potential to be among the world leaders in the fields of (1) carbohydrate chemistry and biology, (2) glycan based diagnosis methodology, (3) infectious disease and its vaccine development, (4) high throughput drug lead discovery, (5) evolutionary bioinformatics for biomedical applications, (6) molecular basis of stem cell research, (7) novel mass spectrometry technology development, and (8) glycoprotein and glycan disease biomarker discovery .

GRC has been integrating the expertise of three Divisions to conduct multidisciplinary research, aiming at (1) drug discovery for infectious diseases and cancers and (2) novel biotechnology development for disease diagnosis. Future perspectives include (1) Excellence in multi-disciplinary biomedical research, (2) Building a world leading position in a few critical fields such as carbohydrate based drug discovery and novel biomedical device development, (3) A center with vision, innovation, adequate facilities and good working environment to attract young and senior talents to join, and (4) Collaborate and coordinate with researchers in domestic academic and industrial institutes to advance pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in Taiwan. More detailed perspectives for each division are given in the follows.

GRC has successfully built an environment for interdisciplinary research under one roof. In addition to conducting multidisciplinary research programs within the center, GRC has an excellent pool of joint research fellows with various expertises from Academia Sinica and universities to nourish these programs. We have also established research networks with National Defense Medical Center, Animal Health Research Institute, DevelopmentCenter for Biotechnology, etc. for development of novel medicines since the epidemic outbreaks of SARS and avian influenza. International collaboration is also in progress with International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Consortia for development of neutralizing antibodies to HIV and Novartis Corporation for the studies of infectious diseases and cancers. In addition to the improvement of the existing collaborative networks, we will further extend the networks to all major medical centers and hospitals in Taiwan for translational medicine and disease biomarker discovery in the next 10 years. We hope to establish ourselves as an internationally recognized institute for drug and biotechnology development. Finally, we expect to develop innovative medicines and technologies and establish more start-up companies through technology transfer in the future.