I was trained as a receptor biologist in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. During my Ph.D.
studies, a family of sensory guanylyl cyclase receptors specifically expressed in retinal or olfactory neurons was identified. Chromosomal mapping and mutation screening led to the discovery that one retinal gene is responsible for one form of retinal degeneration. Indeed, knockout of this gene in mic phenocopied human cone-rod dystrophy. I continued my Postdoctoral training in unraveling the pathogenic mechanism of septic shock at Genentech, Inc. I identified Toll-like receptors (TLRs) involved in bacterial lipoprotein-induced cellular signaling. These receptors and their signaling components could be potential targets in devising a treatment for human sepsis or inflammation disease. I further dedicated myself in the biopharmaceutical industry at COR Therapeutics Inc. later merged with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc where I initiated the genomic effort on endothelial or platelet targets by integrated genomic approaches. A novel receptor P2Y12 was identified and showed to play a critical role in platelet aggregation, thus a biological target for the treatment of thromboembolisms and other clotting disorders.
After returning Taiwan, I am interested in understanding the basic and translational biology of one small secreted and cell-surface SCUBE (signal peptide-CUB-EGF-like domain-containing) protein family (SCUBE1, 2 and 3) identified from human endothelial cells. A combination of the molecular, biochemical, clinical, genetically-altered mouse approaches has been using to unravel the physiological and pathological functions of these novel cell-surface SCUBE proteins. Our results demonstrate their basic functions and translational implications in developmental processes and numerous human diseases such as acute renal failure, acute ischemic / thrombotic diseases, bone disease, breast cancer, and tumor angiogenesis.