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Dr. Tang K. Tang, a distinguished research fellow in the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Academia Sinica, leads a research group, working on the roles of centriolar proteins in neuron progenitors during cerebellar development and investigating how the defects in this process impact the pathogenesis of Joubert syndrome. This work was published in Genes & Development, a prestigious journal renowned in the field of genes and developmental biology.

Dr. Han-Chung Wu’s research group in Academia Sinica recently generated a series of chimeric antibodies that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 by binding to the spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD). Two of the identified antibodies were combined in a cocktail therapy that shows remarkable ability to attenuate viral infection and disease progression in animal models. The work was published in October 21, 2021 in the world-renowned journal, PLoS Pathogens.

Giant viruses infect diverse eukaryotes, causing livestock diseases and algal population demise. To better understand how their genomes evolved, the team of Dr. Chuan Ku at Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology used large-scale analyses to dissect giant virus gene repertoires and showed that host associations, rather than vertical descent from ancient ancestors, have substantially shaped the patterns of giant virus genome variation and gigantism. This work has been published in the journal Virus Evolution.

Diabetes has been incurable due to β-cell death and dysfunction in patients. β-cell preservation is thus emerging as a promising strategy to treat and reverse diabetes. A recent study by Dr. Wen-Chin Yang’s research group at the Research Center of Agricultural Biotechnology, identified Pdia4, a key regulator of β-cell failure, as a novel therapeutic target of diabetes. Pre-clinical studies of a Pdia4 inhibitor, PS1, were completed and PS1 is now ready for the application of investigational drug to FDA and clinical trials. This study has been published in EMBO Molecular Medicine on September, 2021.