Period: 2022-03-07 ~ 2022-03-14

Congratulations! Dr. Yuki Nakamura of IPMB、Dr. Shang-Te Danny Hsu of IBC、Dr. Cheng-Fu Kao of ICOB、Dr. Ruey Bing Yang of IBMS and Dr. Kuo-Chen Yeh of ABRC for receiving the 2021 MOST Outstanding Research Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Welcome to the exhibition of butterfly-watching pictures. Let's appreciate the beauty of nature and cherish our planet.

In order to support academic research, CONCERT provides free access to the Reaxys Chemical Database (IP-controlled) to CONCERT consortium school units with chemistry and pharmacy-related departments until February 28, 2023.

Do you have ideas about life science to share with us? We welcome short posts for submissions. Thank you for your support.

Topic：A Hunt for the Hopeful Monster: Phenotypic Robustness and Genetic Buffering
Speaker：Dr. Jun-Yi Leu
Date：2022-03-08 11:00 ～ 12:00
Place：IMB B1 Auditorium

Topic：Let there be light: Molecular lanterns to illuminate cell signaling
Speaker：Dr. Huiwang Ai
Date：2022-03-10 11:00 ～ 12:00
Place：IBC R209

Topic：Integrate Behaviour and Network Research to Understand Bio-interaction Mechanisms and Structures That Underpin Biodiversity
Speaker：Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho
Date：2022-03-10 15:00
Place：Auditorium, 1st Floor, Interdisciplinary Research Building

Topic 1：Evolution of the NRC network in Caryophyllales and Asterids
Speaker：Mr. Foong-Jing Goh

Topic 2：Leucine-rich repeats and nucleotide binding domain determine helper-sensor specificity in the NRC network.
Speaker：Mr. Ching-Yi Huang

Date：2022-03-11 10:30
Place：R106

DNA methylation is one of the most studied epigenetic modifications that has applications ranging from transcriptional regulation to aging, and can be assessed by bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) or enzymatic methyl sequencing (EM-seq) at single base-pair resolution. The permutations of methylation statuses given by aligned reads reflect the methylation patterns of individual cells. These patterns at specific genomic locations are sought to be indicative of cellular heterogeneity within a cellular population, which are predictive of developments and diseases; therefore, methylation heterogeneity has potentials in early detection of these changes......

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A recent publication from Dr. Tien-Shin Yu’s lab improved the method of mRNA visualization. They developed a background-free RNA live-cell imaging system by using the split-fluorescent protein-based approach. This method broadens the application of RNA imaging system in plants......

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Phytoplasmas are plant-pathogenic bacteria that are distributed widely and cause substantial agricultural losses in the world. In Taiwan, the crops that are impacted by phytoplasma-associated diseases include peanut, loofah, periwinkle, pear, papaya, and sweet potato. Due to the infeasibility of establishing axenic culture of phytoplasmas, it is difficult to study these bacteria using conventional microbiology tools. To overcome this limitation, Drs. Chih-Horng Kuo (Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan) and Jun-Yi Yang (Institute of Biochemistry, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan) collaborated to investigate the evolution and pathogenicity mechanisms using genomics and molecular biology tools......

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Small regulatory peptides, short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds, control a plethora of pivotal biological processes in plants. Although considerable progress has been made over the past two decades in deciphering their role in developmental and signaling pathways, many facets of the biogenesis, function and molecular mechanisms by which peptides act in plants remain to be clarified. A multinational editor team put together a suite of review and original articles that provide insights into the fascinating world of peptide signaling, covering a wide range of topics including methods for the large-scale mining of novel peptides......

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Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 that caused Coronavirus Induced Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the virus has spread all over the world and caused more than 411 million infections and 5.8 million deaths in 25 months. Vaccination is an effective strategy to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the protective antibodies induced by the vaccine are known to recognize the viral surface spike (S) protein and primed the T cell response. However, current vaccines may lose their efficacy because of the high mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2. To overcome this problem, development of a universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine with broad protection against the current and upcoming variants is needed......

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Tissue-protective cytokine IL-22 targets epithelial lineages such as the gastrointestinal system. Clinical relevance of IL-22 to IBD is well-established and IL-22 therapy is promising for IBD treatment as IL-22 is capable of promoting epithelial repair and inducing production of anti-microbial peptides. A work in Nature Communications conducted by Dr. Jr-Wen Shui at Institute of Biomedical Sciences, identify a novel anti-bacterial circuit, showing during E coli infection, IL-22 initiates an IL-18 epithelial response circuit to enforce immunity, which provides therapeutic insights of using IL-22/IL-18 as a potential anti-inflammatory target......

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