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On April 26, 2021, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced its newly elected 120 Members and 30 International Members, with Dr. Yi-Fang Tsay, Distinguished Research Fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Molecular Biology, being elected as a new International Members for her outstanding achievements in plant science. Dr. Tsay expressed surprise upon hearing the news, considering herself deeply honored to have her low-key research efforts in Taiwan recognized by the international scholarly community. A scholar consistently devoted to contributions and breakthroughs in her field of study, Dr. Tsay encourages everyone to persist in the pursuit of their true interests.
Fatty liver is a prevalent liver disease in Taiwan and worldwide and is associated with obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although fatty liver is normally asymptomatic, its progression can lead to hepatitis, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer. The research team of Dr. Ruey-Hwa Chen at Institute of Biological Chemistry identifies a novel autophagy regulatory mechanism and a potential of preventing fatty liver progression by manipulating this mechanism. The study has recently been published on February 26 in Nature Communications.
Pancreatic cancer is known to be vicious, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the type that accounts for 95% of pancreatic cancer and so far it is still incurable. An added fact makes PDAC doomed lies in its tendency to have metastasis, meaning cancer cells have already spread to other organs, when diagnosed.
Academia Sinica President James Liao had been awarded the 2021 Samson-Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Energy and Smart Mobility for Transportation, with his research being praised for exhibiting “a combination of basic research and applied research at a high level” and achieving “a world-leading breakthrough research in the field of bio-energy”.
Dr. Wendy W. Hwang-Verslues, Assistant Professor of Genomics Research Center, discovered that expression of Desmoglein2 (DSG2), a component of the desmosome complex that enhances adhesion between cells, is strongly correlated with poor prognosis and high recurrence in breast cancer. Based on the oxygen level in the microenvironment, the level of DSG2 expression can dynamically increase and decrease to facilitate different stages of cancer cell release from the primary tumor and colonization of a new site in the body. These findings reveal the importance of DSG2 in all stages of breast cancer metastasis and make DSG2 a good candidate for finding a way to inhibit breast cancer metastasis. This research has been published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
In the study, professor Shang-Cheng Hung, director of Genomics Research Center assembled all interested colleagues to a series brainstorm sessions, a decision was made to look through all existing medicines and supplements to find potential drugs to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections. By examining 2855 small molecules, that is, all the approved and available drugs for human and animals in the world right now, plus close to 200 alternative Chinese herbal medicines, they narrowed the candidates down to five. Of the five, two are approved pharmaceutical compounds, and three are herbal medicines. The team has filed patent and published their study in the PNAS journal in January, 2021.
Dicarbon(0) C2, the smallest diatomic molecule with a carbon–carbon bond. In contrast to the natural occurrence of F2, O2 and N2 as diatomic species, C2 is too reactive for experimental studies in the condensed phase, which has been only detected at extremely high temperature (> 3500 °C) in the blue flame and in interstellar atmosphere. There have been numerous synthetic attempts to stabilize C2 experimentally with many kinds of chemical ligand strategy. So far, efforts meet deadlock, as bonding situation of the central C2 differ significantly from those of free C2. Thus, the nature of the bond and electronic states in C2 has limited to only theoretical simulations with controversial outcomes and disagreements within the Chemical Science community.
Dr. Han-Chung Wu, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology and Director of the Biomedical Translation Research Center at Academia Sinica, was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) of the United States in December 2020. This is among the highest achievable honors for an academic inventor. The award ceremony will be held in Florida, United States, on June 7 to 9, 2021.
The Awards Ceremony for the 9th Scholarly Monograph Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences was held on December 17 on the first floor of the Tsai Yuan-Pei Memorial Hall (Faculty Club), Academia Sinica. This year, five books were selected for the award: three in Mandarin and two in English, covering topics such as sociology, history, philosophy, Chinese literature, and linguistics. It was our great pleasure to recognize this year’s award winners, whose thought-provoking books explored a vast range of ideas and challenged preexisting theoretical frameworks.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused almost all countries in the world to lockdown or control movement across borders. Consequently the world economy is experiencing a historical deep recession. Taiwan’s economy, however, has been growing remarkably, thanks to the united efforts and actions of the government and the people to fight and control the pandemic. Indeed, the Taiwan experience in fighting the Covid-19 and maintaining a robust economic growth has become a center of worldwide focus. The real GDP growth rate in the third quarter reached 3.92% and growth in the year 2020 is expected to be 2.71%.
How bioluminescent fungi have evolved, retained or lost their luciferase cluster have been revealed by a team of scientists led by Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica Taiwan.
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