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The research team led by Dr. Jun-An Chen’s group at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, has achieved a significant breakthrough in studying Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease.

A study led by Dr. Jun-An Chen’s group at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, has revealed a previously unrecognized micropeptide embedded within a misannotated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). Motor neuron diversity in the spinal cord is crucial for coordinated movement, driven by a complex mix of internal programs and external cues. Dr. Jun-An Chen’s team, known for pioneering work on noncoding RNAs, has now uncovered a surprising discovery—a misannotated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that actually encodes a micropeptide named Sertm2. Highly expressed in embryonic spinal motor neurons, Sertm2 had remained unnoticed until now. Using a combination of embryonic stem cell and animal models, the team showed that deleting Sertm2 did not affect the generic motor neurons but selectively impaired certain subtypes, leading to motor coordination defects in mice. The culprit? Disrupted signaling of GDNF, a key neurotrophic factor essential for motor neuron health and a target in neurodegenerative disease research. Strikingly, reintroducing only Sertm2 micropeptide using lentiviral vectors restored normal motor neuron subtype production in the entire lncRNA genome locus, highlighting its critical role in neuronal development. The peptide’s function was also validated in human iPSC-derived motor neurons, confirming its evolutionary conservation. This study not only redefines how we view so-called “noncoding” RNAs but also positions micropeptides like Sertm2 as promising therapeutic tools and biomarkers in neurological disease and regenerative medicine. The study has been published in EMBO Reports (IF 7.7, 2025) on March 19, 2025. The study’s primary author, Fang-Yu Hsu, is a Ph.D. student in the Genome and Systems Biology Program at Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The research team also included Dr. Ya-Ping Yen, Hung-Chi Fan, and Mien Chang. This work was supported by Academia Sinica, the National Science and Technology Council, and the National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan.

We are pleased to announce the new publication of issue 26.2 of Language and Linguistics.

The newest issue of Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica has just been published by the Institute of History and Philology.

A research team led by Dr. Yi-Chung Tung at the Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, has uncovered the critical role of oxygen tension in early brain development, particularly its influence on neurogenesis before the brain’s vascular system is fully established. Using human brain organoids as a model, the team applied fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) combined with oxygen-sensing microbeads to monitor real-time changes in oxygen tension within the organoids. Through single-cell RNA sequencing and metabolomic analysis, they investigated how oxygen tension affects developmental progression. The results showed that between weeks 4 and 6 of development, oxygen tension within the organoids significantly increased, promoting energy metabolism regulation and neuronal generation. Further experiments revealed that lowering oxygen tension or inhibiting neuroglobin expression suppressed this increase in oxygen levels, thereby affecting organoid development and reducing neuronal production. This study is the first to demonstrate the pivotal influence of oxygen tension variation during specific developmental stages on brain development. It provides new insights into the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and potential therapeutic strategies.

Agroinfiltration is a widely used technique in plant gene research, where bacteria are used to temporarily introduce foreign genes into plant leaves, enabling rapid functional analysis. Traditionally, Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been the bacterium of choice. Through a systematic screen, our recent study shows that a strain of Rhizobium rhizogenes, a relative of A. tumefaciens, delivers genes even more effectively. This discovery offers a more efficient and versatile tool for gene function studies, especially in solanaceous crops like tomato and pepper, which are often challenging for transient expression. It holds promise for accelerating crop research and advancing sustainable agriculture. This research was published on April 9, 2025, in Plant Biotechnology Journal. It was supported by the Grand Challenge Program of Academia Sinica and was a collaborative effort by the labs of Dr. Chih-Hang Wu, Dr. Erh-Min Lai, and Dr. Chih-Hong Kuo at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology. Co-first authors are TIGP students Juan Carlos Lopez-Agudelo and Foong-Jing Goh.

“Sng” or “Sng-pain” is a Taiwanese term that denotes an acid-like discomfort, one of the most common complaints in pain clinics. Although the cost of medical care spent on sng or sng-pain is the highest among all diseases all over the world, current analgesics are not very effective for many types of intractable sng or sng-pain (e.g., fibromyalgia). To solve the unmet medical needs of intractable sng-pain, the research team have found sng and pain are two different somatosensory functions, with proprioceptors are the sngceptors to sense tissue acidosis and to trigger the acid-induced priming and “pain” chronicity in moused models of fibromyalgia. This study was conducted by Dr. Chih-Cheng Chen, a distinguished research fellow and his research team at Academia Sinica, with supported from the National Science and Technology Council’s Brain Technology Project and the Investigator Award of Academia Sinica. These findings were published in the prestigious international journal Science Advancesin January 31, 2025.

The latest issue of《Bulletin of the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica New Series》has been published.

Exosomes are responsible for intercellular communication and are widely valued in medicine and bioindustry. The team led by Dr. Ruey-Hwa Chen, a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, has recently made a major breakthrough in the mechanism of exosome biogenesis. They discovered that cells contain two types of multivesicular bodies (MVBs), MVBs with PTPN23 are directed to lysosomes for degradation, while MVBs with ALIX are delivered to the cell membrane via actin cytoskeleton regulation for exosome secretion. The released exosomes are loaded with tumor-promoting proteins to enhance metastasis and tumor immune evasion. This study has broad impacts on boosting exosome production in bioindustry and devising cancer therapeutic strategy. This study was published in Developmental Cell (IF: 10.7) on April 3, 2025. The first author is Nai Yang Yeat, a Ph.D. student in the Taiwan International Graduate Program in Chemical Biology and Molecular Biophysics. The research was supported by Academia Sinica Investigator Award.

This issue has a total of three research articles. The authors and titles of these articles are as follow

This study analyzed sea turtle sightings from a citizen science project, TurtleSpot Taiwan, to identify Taiwan’s coastal foraging grounds, site fidelity, and threats. Results showed three main green turtle foraging grounds (Liuqiu Island, Kenting, and Green Island), and 43.4% of individuals stayed in the same area for one or more years, with adult-sized turtle residency greater than immature turtles. Moreover, 10% of the sightings involved turtles with fishing line entanglement, ingested debris, missing flippers, or injuries, indicating a significant level of human-turtle disturbance. The project also revealed transboundary movements of flipper-tagged individuals and demonstrated the value of citizen science in long-term ecological monitoring and marine biodiversity conservation. This research was published on March 24, 2025, in the BMC Ecology and Evolution, with Dr. Jia-Ling Feng, a PhD candidate from the TIGP Biodiversity Program at Academia Sinica, as the first author. The research team also included Dr. Yo-Ko Nozawa and Dr. Chih-Wei Ho, postdoctoral researchers. The citizen science project collaborators included several members of the Turtle Spot Taiwan. The study was jointly supported by Academia Sinica, the Turtle Spot Taiwan, and the Ocean Conservation Administration, Ocean Affairs council.

Cancer, a major global killer, claimed 9.7 million lives among 20 million new cases in 2022, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Led by Dr. Chi-Huey Wong and Dr. Che Ma at Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center, the researchersexplore β-1,3-galactosyltransferase 5 (β3GalT5). This enzyme drives production of cancer-linked glycans (e.g., Globo-H), fueling tumor growth and metastasis—making it a prime therapeutic target. Using X-ray crystallography, the team mapped β3GalT5’s structure and mechanism, revealing its broad substrate specificity. They engineered an S66A variant, boosting glycan synthesis efficiency tenfold, aiding vaccine production for cancers like triple-negative breast cancer. Two studies were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (March 2025) and were funded by Academia Sinica.