2013 MCASTA Annual Symposium - Keynote & Award

"I've learned over the years that collaborative research is the most productive. the whole often turns out to be greater than the sum of the individual parts." ~ Hsing-Jien Kung ~

Dr. Kung has a reputation as one of the most brilliant scientists at work on prostate cancer, with a particular interest in understanding the role of cancer-causing oncogenes and growth factors. Dr. Kung is engaged in cancer research with specific focus on the identification of genetic and epigenetic factors contributing to the development of human malignancies including prostate cancer and Kaposi's sarcoma. Under investigations are cellular and viral oncogenes, which are involved in posttranslational modifications of signal molecules and chromatins, leading to malignant transformation. They include tyrosine kinases, E3 SUMO ligases and histone demethylases.

In collaborative work, Dr. Kung’s lab is also involved in developing inhibitors or therapeutic agents which target these oncogenes, resulting in specific and enhanced killing of tumor cells. More recent work has been directed toward the understanding of autophagy (self-eating) as a modulator of apoptosis (self-killing). Efforts are being made to develop effective means to measure autophag and to modulate this process.

Dr. Kung is also an enormously respected leader, mentor and colleague to all who have worked with him, as he is known to offer unfailing support along with his probing scientific questions. Dr. Kung is a beloved leader, a mentor, and colleague who was described as leading with a keen mind, hard work and unfailing kindness.  “Hsing-Jien is special not just in his ability to do science — a lot of people can do science,” says Dr. Ralph de Vere White, Cancer Center Director at UC-Davis. “It’s his ability to bring everyone else along that is truly exceptional.”

Dr. Sun graduated from the Department of Botany in National Taiwan University in 1980, and the Division of Biology in Caltech in 1986. His Ph.D. work at Caltech is on the mouse immune system. He is the first to molecularly map the mouse major histocompatibility complex. He then shifted to study olfaction, using Drosophila as the experimental system, at the Department of Biology in Yale University. He returned in 1988 to the newly established Institute of Molecular Biology in Academia Sinica in Taipei, and became a Distinguished Research Fellow in 2006. His study focused on the molecular regulation of organ development, using the fly compound eye as the experimental system, and has made important contributions to the field.

In addition to his scientific achievements, Dr. Sun is also known for his promotion and education of developmental biology, and for his effort in supporting the Taiwan fly research community. He served as adjunct professor in the Graduate Institute of Genomic Sciences and Department of Biological Sciences in National Yang-Ming University. He is the recipient of three consecutive Frontier Science Grant from the National Science Council, the Academic Award from the Ministry of Education, and the Chin-Tuei Ho Excellence Award. He has also served in many roles in the local and international scientific communities.

Dr. Dustin Yang was graduated from National Taiwan University and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences from North Texas State University. Dr. Yang served as the Microbiologist in the Polio and Picornavirus Laboratory Branch at Centers for Disease and Prevention, Atlanta, GA for a number of years, and then he continued to join the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control at end of 2006. After a long career working in government public health agencies, Dr. Yang retired in 2010.

Dr. Yang’s research interest has been in developing new technology for virus diagnostic, viral molecular epidemiology, prevention and control for infectious diseases. He has served as a WHO consultant to conduct workshops and trainings in several countries for the global poliomyelitis eradication program and still active in providing consultation to Taiwan CDC polio program.

After receiving his BS degree from Tunghai University in Taiwan, Professor Lin went abroad for advanced degrees in the US: MS from Syracuse University, and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He did a little over one year of postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis in 1970, and was promoted to full professor in 1985. He also held a secondary appointment as Professor of Neurology at WU School of Medicine in the period of 1996 -2013. He has trained 21 students and postdoctoral fellows (many from Taiwan) before he became an Emeritus Professor in 2013. 

Professor Lin’s research activities cover a wide range of fields, from chemical physics (photo excitation dynamics and laser spectroscopy), material chemistry (nanostructured mesoporous silicas and biomimetics) to biomedicine (reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress). His contributions in the area of reactive oxygen species, an important factor in chemistry and biology as it is related to stress responses and cell death are most noticeable. One of his published articles in this area has been cited over 675 times, and another one over 580 times. His research projects have been continuously supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Petroleum Research Funds (American Chemical Society), and Research Corporation. He was invited to spend months and years to engage research in the Netherlands (Leiden University), Germany (University of Freiburg), Japan (Riken Research Institutes) and Taiwan (National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica). He has been collaborating with over 100 scientists and students around the world. He has published 125 peer-reviewed articles, and about 35 of these papers were results of collaboration with scientists and students from Taiwan. Two US patents were credited to Dr. Lin’s inventions.

Dr. Lin was invited to present lectures in many international conferences, and to general publics on health related topics in Taiwan. Six health-related popular science books (in Chinese) for general publics were written by Dr. Lin and published in Taiwan. Two of his books received awards from the Department of Health, Taiwan. He received many awards and recognitions for his scientific achievements. He is a member of American Chemical Society.

Dr. Stephen Wu was from Chang-Hua, Taiwan. Dr. Wu graduated from National Taiwan University and obtained his Ph.D degree in Biophysical Chemistry from Stanford University. Dr. Wu served as the Lab Head for Pharmaceutical Formulation Laboratory in Eastman Chemical Company for a number of years, and then he joined Covidien/Mallinckrodt as a Technical Fellow in Pharmaceutical R/D Department. Now he is an Adjunct Professor teaching Biochemistry in Missouri Baptist University (MBU) and also a Board member of MBU. He has served as a thesis committee member for Ph.D. candidates in St. John’s University and Long Island University (2006 – present). After a long career in Pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Wu retired in 2013 and began to serve as a consultant for developing drug delivery systems, nanotechnology, and acquisition of biomedical technologies

Dr. Wu’s research interest has been in innovating new excipients, drug delivery systems for human and animal applications, liposomes and nanoparticles for cancer treatment. He was a pioneer of developing magnesium stearate dihydrate as a new tablet lubricant, water-dispersible absorption enhancer (TPGS) and pH-sensitive coatings for drug delivery. Dr. Wu published articles in scientific journals and book chapters, and obtained more than 30 patents in controlled-release technology.

Dr. Wu is a part-time student at Covenant Theological Seminary at St. Louis majoring in Christian education, and devotes his time to serve the Chinese community. He has three adult children. His wife, An Wu, has an RN degree and an MA degree in counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary; both of them use their life experiences and professional trainings to serve people of different age groups who may have needs in communication, marriage, family and parenting, and spiritual matters.

Dr. Song is a Professor of Radiology in Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated with a BS degree in Chemistry from Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan.  He received his MS degree in Physical Chemistry from University of Alabama in Birmingham, and PhD in Physical Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Song is a renowned expert in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He was the first to demonstrate that diffusion MRI improves prostate cancer detection without the need of injecting contrast agents. He has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He is also a reviewer for over two dozens of peer-reviewed journals. His research is currently supported by NIH, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Department of Defense, and Hope Center of Neurological Disorders in Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Song has led a group of talented young scientists developing noninvasive MRI biomarkers to detect axonal pathologies in central nervous system (CNS) diseases and injuries. In 2002, he proposed a novel concept to interpret diffusion tensor imaging (DTI, one of the tools used in NIH sponsored Human Connectome Project to visualize brain connectivity) data enabling a noninvasive assessment of axonal injury and demyelination in CNS white matter tracts. This paper and its two sequels have been cited over 1,900 times since their publication. In addition to being used as the pathological markers, diffusion MRI has also been demonstrated recently, for the first time, by Dr. Song’s lab to investigate functional activity of optic nerves from mice. This is of great significance since conventional functional MRI of white matter tracts has not been successful as widely seen in gray matter.

To improve the previously proposed and widely used biomarkers of white matter tract pathologies, Dr. Song’s team has recently proposed a new diffusion MRI approach, diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI), to noninvasively detect CNS inflammation in addition to the axonal and myelin pathologies. DBSI takes a revolutionary approach to model diffusion MRI signals allowing accurate detection and differentiation of underlying pathologies. Its utility has surpassed the previous DTI markers in that DBSI detects not only white matter tracts pathologies but also CNS inflammation. The continued development and validation of DBSI for future clinical application is the primary focus of Dr. Song’s lab.