Ying-Hui Fu

Ying-Hui Fu, Ph.D.
傅嫈惠

Professor
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Ying-Hui Fu obtained her bachelors degree in Food Science from National Chung-Hsing University and a PhD degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Ohio State University. After post-doctoral training at Ohio State University and Baylor College of Medicine, she worked as a scientist in Millennium Pharmaceutical Inc. and Darwin Molecular Corp. for four years before she transitioned back to academia as an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Utah. She moved to the University of California San Francisco in 2002 and has been a full Professor there since 2006.

At Baylor, Dr. Fu pioneered the field of trinucleotide repeat expansions (TNRs) as a cause of human disease. She identified the mutations underlying Fragile X mental retardation and then went on to clone the myotonic dystrophy gene. She showed that expanded trinucleotide repeats can be disease causing and that they are unstable and can expand in passage through meiosis. Together, this work defined TNR expansions as the molecular basis of the clinical phenomenon of “anticipation”.

Dr. Fu is a leader and pioneer in the field of sleep and circadian rhythm research. Dr. Fu’s research uses human genetics combined with multiple model organisms to investigate molecular mechanisms of human conditions. Her laboratory has been focusing on myelin biology, circadian rhythm and sleep behaviors. Her chief discoveries include describing Mendelian sleep phenotypes, identifying causative genes and mutations for circadian rhythm variants in the general population, and characterizing genetic forms of demyelinating degenerative disorders. Since circadian rhythm and sleep homeostasis are intimately connected with many physiological pathways including metabolism, immune function, brain health and mood regulation, her research will also shed new light on how sleep schedule and sleep homeostasis can impact health and disease. As a result of her accomplishments, she has been elected to Academia Sinica, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Tak-Yee Lee

Tak-Yee Lee, Ph.D.
李德義

Former Vice President
Osmotic Pharmaceuticals

Tak-Yee Lee, Ph.D., is an experienced pharmaceutical scientist and leader in new drug and generic drug development. His pharmaceutical product development experience extends from new drug discovery interface to commercial product introduction. Tak retired from Osmotica Pharmaceuticals in 2016 as Vice President, Portfolio and Operations where he oversaw product development and manufacturing functions. Before Osmotica, Tak worked for several companies throughout his career, ranging from start-up biotech to pharma companies.

His roles included technical and managerial responsibilities in the areas of drug product development, analytical development, production quality control, clinical manufacturing, and pharmaceutical device development. He was Executive Director, Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences at Pfizer, Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Development at Aronex Pharmaceuticals, and technical and leadership roles in other pharmaceutical companies. Tak received his B.S. in Pharmacy from National Taiwan University in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1986.

Wei-Shou Hu

Wei-Shou Hu, Ph.D.
胡維碩

Professor
University of Minnesota

Dr. Wei-Shou Hu is a Taiwanese-American chemical engineer, and he has been a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota since 1983. He earned his bachelor degree in Agricultural Chemistry from National Taiwan University in 1974 and his doctoral degree in Biochemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. His work covers areas including modeling and controlling cell metabolism, glycosylation modulation, and process data mining; he has helped shape the advances of biopharmaceutical process technology. His current research emphasizes employing genomic and proteomic tools in his research projects.

Dr. Hu thinks he graduated at the right time of the biotech explosion (the 1980s), and he initiated the Engineering Foundation Conferences on Cell Culture Engineering soon after he started his academic career. The conference has been among the most relevant forum of cell bioprocessing for biologics. When asked about the work-life balance, Dr. Hu pointed out that it depends on each person’s value and sense of fulfillment. It is important to find a workplace that let you accomplish that. Also, a successful graduate student is not one who works long hours, but one works efficiently and resourcefully. One should keep in mind an important aspect of graduate student training is also to perform well under pressure or during the critical time. Presentation skill and embracing collaborations are the essential training in Dr. Hu’s lab, and he also encourages his students to be generous, be good human beings in addition to being good scientists. As he has already built the reputation and connection within the industry, he emphasized the importance of “networking”. We look forward to learning more about Dr. Hu’s career development, the relationship he cultivated with the industry, and his recommendations for current graduate students!

More information about Dr. Wei-Shou Hu
Lab Website: https://hugroup.cems.umn.edu
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei-Shou_Hu

Sheng-Chih (Peter) Jin

Sheng-Chih (Peter) Jin, Ph.D.
金聖智

Postdoctoral Fellow, Rockefeller University
Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Jin received his undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics at the National Chiao Tung University and a Master’s degree in Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. with Alison Goate and Carlos Cruchaga at Washington University in St. Louis and a post-doctoral training with Richard Lifton at Yale and Rockefeller. Supported by a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NHLBI, he is currently in transition to his new role as an assistant professor on the tenure track in the Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine and will start his independent lab in April of 2020.

He was the lead computational biologist for the whole exome/genome sequencing and array genotyping analysis working groups in the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium and the International Cerebral Palsy Genomics Consortium. He developed a novel control-free statistical framework and applied this methodology to a whole exome sequencing dataset of 2,871 congenital heart disease (CHD) probands to demonstrate that ~1.8% of cases are attributed to rare transmitted mutations (Nature Genetics 2017). He also led genomic analysis and methodology development in several genetic studies of complex diseases, including congenital hydrocephalus, Vein of Galen malformation, Chiari malformation, trigeminal neuralgia, Dent disease, arachnoid cyst, nephrotic syndrome, and congenital hemangioma, for the Yale Center for Mendelian Genomics.

Meng-Chuan Lai

Meng-Chuan Lai, Ph.D.
賴孟泉

Assistant Professor
University of Toronto

Meng-Chuan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and as a Staff Psychiatrist of Centre for Addiction and Mental Health & the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He completed his training of medical doctor in the National Taiwan University and received postgraduate clinical training in both adult and child/adolescent psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital. His clinical interests are in autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions, and adolescent mental health, sexual identity, and gender development, and resilience. He performed his Ph.D. and postdocs research at the Cambridge University Autism Research Centre.

During his Ph.D. training, he focused on disentangling the complex relationship between sex/gender and autism at the cognitive and neuroimaging levels, and also extended his interest into social attitude/stereotype formation in people with autism. His current research focuses on elucidating the heterogeneity of autism by contrasting various subgroups. Meng-Chuan initiated the Female AIMS (Autism Imaging Multicentre Study) project to complement the male AIMS study conducted with MRC support, and continuously collaborate with the Autism Research Centre.

Li-Hao (Paul) Huang

Li-Hao (Paul) Huang, Ph.D.
黃立豪

Instructor
Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Li-Hao (Paul) Huang received his B.S. at National Taiwan University, Chemistry Department, and continued to pursuit his Ph.D. at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Biochemistry Department, where he studied ACAT1 gene in macrophages in atherosclerosis. His post-doctoral training, with Dr. Gwendalyn Randolph at Washington University School of Medicine, Pathology and Immunology Department, made him committed to focus on his long term goal, after he becomes an independent faculty, in understanding interstitial lipoprotein trafficking through lymphatic vasculature, the process mediated by immune responses, in human diseases. His ultimate goal is to inspire trainees to continue the research path so as to make exciting and significant discoveries.  Throughout his career up until this point, Paul have published 18 publications, including 6 first authored research articles, 2 first and co-corresponding authored reviews, and 2 patent applications. He has received 18 awards, including an American Heart Association Career Development Award, been invited or selected for 19 oral presentations at national conferences, and served or will serve in several leadership positions, including one as a 2020 Chair of the Lipoprotein Gordon Research Seminar. Paul also has been a happy Tzu-Chi volunteer for over 10 years; he enjoys growing at the same time sharing along the way of life.

Melissa Haulcomb

Melissa Haulcomb, Ph.D.

Patent Lawyer
K&L Gates LLP

Dr. Melissa Haulcomb is an Intellectual Property Attorney at K&L Gates, LLP. K&L Gates is a full- service global firm, recently named the 13th largest firm in the world with attorneys across five continents. Representative clients include Duke Energy Corp., Baxter International Inc., CBS Corp., Wells Fargo, Starbucks Corp., Sprint Nextel Corp., and Microsoft Corp. Dr. Haulcomb focuses her practice on prosecution for domestic and international patent applications as well as intellectual property litigation, including patent, trademark and copyright infringement. In addition, Dr. Haulcomb is fortunate to have the opportunity to devote time to pro bono matters, which provides legal services for the public good, such as representing individuals in asylum cases before the U.S. Immigration Court.

Dr. Haulcomb received her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in 2004. After working for Pfizer Inc., as a technician, she attended graduate school at Loyola University Chicago where she earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2011. Her dissertation research focused on immune-mediated neuroprotection following neuronal injury and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Haulcomb’s first postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine focused on the mechanisms underlying disease progression rates in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and her second involved researching the molecular pathways and genetics underlying Autism Spectrum Disorder. During her second postdoc, she took a leave of absence to work as a Scientific Project Leader at Anagin, Inc., a biotech startup developing small molecule therapeutics for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). During this time, she began attending Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law as an evening student in 2015 and completed a 10-week internship at K&L Gates as a Summer Associate in 2018. Dr. Haulcomb earned her Juris Doctorate degree in December 2018, was admitted to the Illinois Bar in February 2019, started her legal career early at K&L Gates as a Law Clerk in April and will transition to a First-Year Associate at the end of September 2019.

Erin Zook

Erin Zook, Ph.D.

Principle Scientist
Becton, Dickinson and Company

Dr. Zook received her bachelor degree in Biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD degree in Immunology and Aging from Loyola University Chicago in 2012. Her dissertation topic was examining how aging affects the immune system, particularly by employing a novel transgenic mouse model to study the role of FOXN1 in maintaining T cell development with age. She then continued to pursue her post-doctoral training in University of Chicago and her research interests focused on the regulation of E and ID proteins in innate lymphoid cell development and NK cell biology.

Combining the scientific skills and the experiences of team lead as well as project management acquired from academic research training, in 2016, she joined Astellas Pharma as a Senior Scientist then moved to BD and worked as a Principal Scientist. Her work incudes managing and supporting multiple projects including designing clinical trials, developing pre-clinical models to test compound safety and efficacy, and providing scientific support for business strategy and regulatory filings. She is now part of Medical Affairs supporting Infection Prevention at BD.

Po-Jen (Will) Yen

Po-Jen (Will) Yen, Ph.D.
顏伯任

Business Development & Corporate Strategy
Voyager

Dr. Po-Jen (Will) Yen is now a Business Development professional at Voyager Therapeutics, with more than 4 years of experience in corporate strategy and business development. His work involves developing corporate strategies, supporting business development activities, as well as searching and evaluating external licensing and collaboration opportunities.

Dr. Po-Jen (Will) Yen received his scientific training through a PhD in Virology at Harvard University, a Master in Biotechnology at University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor in Zoology at National Taiwan University. During his PhD training, he strengthened his knowledge in business through a Mini-MBA program, which consists of 10-week course and small group workshops; also, he enhanced his experience in drug development and commercialization through various opportunities, including “Healthcare Innovation and Commercialization” and “Drug Development: From Concept to Commercialization” courses.

Christine Shyu

Christine Shyu, Ph.D.
徐晧珩

Scientist
Bayer

Dr. Christine Shyu received her bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from National Chung- Hsing University (Taiwan) and obtained a PhD degree in Plant Biology from Michigan State University in 2012. Her thesis focused on the molecular mechanism of JASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN proteins in regulating jasmonate responses in Arabidopsis. After graduation, she continued to purse postdoctoral training in a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) lab located in the Department of Biology at University of Washington, Seattle, then transitioned to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis) and worked as a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow from 2014 to 2017. In this period, she further extended her research interest in jasmonate signaling into crop systems. The studies include utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 and Ac/Ds tagging to generate jasmonate signaling mutants in green millet and maize, building RNA-seq databases to study spatiotemporal transcriptional dynamics of jasmonate responses in green millet, and high throughput image analyses of abiotic stress responses in rice. In 2017, she joined Monsanto Company (Now Bayer Crop Science) as a Gene Editing Scientist. Her role involves leading and executing research projects to develop new technologies for gene editing and site-directed integration of transgene cassettes in corn and soybean.

Christine is passionate about improving modern agriculture through innovative science and dynamic collaborations. She actively participates in scientific outreach and communication events and welcomes conversations on GMO, gene editing and plant biotechnology. She is also a mother of a two-year-old son and enjoys maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle well spent with family while actively pursuing her scientific career.

Jenny Chang

Jenny Chang, Ph.D.

Medical Science Liason
Novartis

Dr. Chang received her Bachelor degree in Genetics from University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2006. She then went on to pursue her doctoral degree at Loyola University Chicago in Physiology where she focused on investigating GPCR-mediated signaling in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. During her doctoral training, she also obtained a certificate in Business Development from Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis where she conducted market analysis for strategy implementation and led a team competing in an in-vitro platform technology development for heart failure patients. After obtaining her doctoral degree in 2012, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Leigh Griffiths at University of California, Davis as a post-doctoral fellow where she focused her research on the application of stem cell immunotherapy in cardiac vascular diseases. During her postdoctoral training, she also served as an account manager in Madison House LLC helping to identify client’s medical care services, serving as a primary liaison for inquires from clients, representative and healthcare professionals. In 2016, Dr. Chang joined Novartis as a Medical Science Liaison for Cardiovascular department serving CO,UT,WY and ID area. She takes on a multifunctional role where she participates in clinical education, data sharing, research discussion and maintaining communication between the healthcare provide and the patient supporting the late phase clinical trial activities within heart failure and cardiovascular diseases.

Chia-Hung (Jerry) Chu

Chia-Hung (Jerry) Chu, Ph.D.
周家宏

Senior Principle Scientist
Pfizer

Dr. Chu received his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, and PhD degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. His dissertation work includes engineering of mammalian cells and Influenza viral vaccine production. During his graduate training, he also worked as an intramural research fellow at NIDDK Biotechnology Core Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. He designed and developed tools for optimizing influenza virus production and mammalian cell culture.

Dr. Chu joined Pfizer in St. Louis in 2010 as a senior scientist working in the BioTherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences Division. Dr. Chu is currently a senior principal scientist, as well as a group leader in the division. In this role, he is leading the drug substance team for a late-stage gene therapy program. Dr. Chu has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 10 years, and has been involved in hiring processes as a group leader. He received several awards from Pfizer, including 2 Team Impact Awards in a row.

Tzu-Chi (Robert) Ju

Tzu-Chi (Robert) Ju, Ph.D.
朱子琦

Director
NCE Analytical R&D
Drug Product Development
Abbvie

Dr. Ju received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. After graduation, he joined Pharmacia & Upjohn and started his career as a formulation scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. He became a group leader and director, and has been leading formulation and dissolution method development in several companies, including Amgen, Abbott, and Abbvie.

Dr. Ju is currently the director of Analytical R&D at Abbvie, Chicago. Meanwhile, he has been engaged in national and international pharmaceutical organizations, including serving as a chair of two groups at IQ consortium, with a mission to advance technology that benefits patients and the broader R&D community. He is passionate about industry-regulator-academic interactions and facilitated several conferences. He has been driving innovation and stays active in presentation, publication, and patent applications. As part of his extensive leadership experience, Dr. Ju has also been involved in recruiting and talent management. Outside work, he enjoys coaching, working out in the gym, playing drums, cooking, reading novels, and travelling.

Yen-Lian Liu

Yen-Lian Liu, Ph.D.
劉彥良

Assistant Professor
China Medical University

Dr. Yen-Lian Liu received his B.S. degree in Life Science and M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from National Taiwan University. His master’s thesis was focused on lung tissue engineering and alveolar angiogenesis. He also participated in clinical research of stem cell therapy for knee cartilage regeneration. In 2018, he received his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the instrumentation of an advanced fluorescence microscope and its application in cancer diagnostics. He is also the co-founder of Texas Taiwanese Biotechnology Association (TTBA) and the President of 2017. After publishing 21 SCI journal articles across the fields of optics, biophysics, DNA sensor, biomaterials, cancer therapy, and stem cell, in 2019, he was awarded the Young Scholar Fellowship Program (Columbus project) and started his laboratory at China Medical University in Taiwan. Now his research focuses on 1) Tumor organoid-based high-content screening system using multiphoton imaging; 2) Single- particle/molecule tracking of biomolecules in living cells 3) Biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

Yun-Chu Chen

Yun-Chu Chen, Ph.D.
陳韻竹

Postdoctoral Fellow
Purdue University

Dr. Yun-Chu Chen obtained her bachelor’s degree in Physics from National Tsing Hua University, her MPhil degree in biophysics from the University of Manchester in the UK, and her PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Bath in the UK. She is currently a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University in the USA. She works in a multidisciplinary team and leads an independent project which covers investigating surface modification methods and Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) materials for an anti-biofouling continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) devices, and developing sustained drug delivery systems that deliver anti-inflammatory drugs at the injection site to meet industrial partner’s requirement of preventing tissue responses that leads to the blockade of infusion flow.

She was awarded with the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology’s LiFT program (Leader in Future Trands) in 2017, which encouraged her to bring her professional expertise of cross-disciplinary projects in the biomedicine field in the industrial and academic areas to Taiwan.

Yung-Tsen Chen

Yung-Tsen Chen, Ph.D.
陳泳岑

Research Fellow
University of Chicago

Yung-Tsen Chen received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago in August 2018. She also holds an M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Michigan University and a B.S. in Psychology from National Taiwan University. Prior to coming to UChicago, Yung-Tsen worked as a psychotherapist in psychology clinics with a specialization in adults and the elderly. Her dissertation, “Effect of Aging Stereotype Activation on Older Adults’ Memory and Neural Activity”, and continuing research investigate the impact of social and psychological factors on memory performance, the neural mechanisms of memory formation/distortion, and the differences between younger and older adults’ memory using a combination of behavioral paradigms, brain stimulation technique, and/or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As a Social Sciences Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago, she teaches in the Psychology Department as well as the College's Social Science Core Sequence “Mind.” Yung-Tsen also attended LiFT 2.0 program in June 2019 in Taiwan.

Elizabeth Wu

Elizabeth Wu, Ph.D.

Co-founder
Scismic

Elizabeth Wu is a co-founder of Scismic. During her time as a life scientist in academia and industry, she witnessed the challenges that researchers face in finding a work environment that fits their professional skills and development needs. Leveraging her extensive experience in creating personal and professional development programs for community groups, she cofounded Scismic to address these challenges. She has done extensive research on how recruiters and hiring managers evaluate candidates during CV screening and interviews. Previously, she worked as a Research Associate at Translate Bio, an mRNA therapeutics company, and as a Lab Manager at Harvard University.

Chau-Ti Ting

Chau-Ti Ting, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
National Taiwan University

Dr. Chau-Ti Ting received her Ph.D. from National Taiwan University, Department of Plant Pathology and Entomology in 1997. During her Ph.D. training, she received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Education (Taiwan) and spent two years as a visiting student at the University of Chicago. She was trained and always considered herself as an evolutionary geneticist focusing on the genetic changes between closely related Drosophila species. She identified the first hybrid male sterility gene, Odysseus, in Drosophila and brought the speciation field into the molecular area. Her current works involve in the studies of genetic changes underlying sexual isolation of D. melanogaster. With the tools of population genomics, her group was able to identify several genetic variations contributing to sexual isolation in Drosophila. In addition to her primary interest in speciation, she also attempts to tackle how gene duplication plays a role in evolutionary innovation. Her recent work on polymorphic gene duplications reveals possible evolutionary inferences on the facts of duplications.

Hsinjin Edwin Yang

Hsinjin Edwin Yang, Ph.D.

President
Pioneer Scientific Solutions, LLC

Dr. Hsinjin Edwin Yang received his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry/Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He has spent more than 27 years in the industry and accumulated valuable experiences in R & D, product development, and management. Over the years, he has received or filed 26 patents (21 issued and 4 filed), authored more than 50 scientific articles (including journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings), and delivered more than 60 invited seminar talks.
Dr. Yang currently serves as the president of Pioneer Scientific Solution, LLC., and the Editor for “Durability and Reliability of Polymers and Other Materials in Photovoltaic Modules”, and has been served as the technical consultant for Far East Enterprises, GAF Materials Corp., Niagara Bottles, Deatak Inc. China National Key Laboratory of Environmental Adaptability, and Medical Chain International (MCI) . His research and consulting areas cover polymers/materials for biomedical devices, medication delivery, ophthalmic optical lenses, flammability, and biofuels.