Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Current research: Understanding differential roles of Wnt signaling — beta-catenin-Lef/TCF complex in regulation of epidermal homeostasis, hair follicle stem cell maintenance and activation.
My interests in science started in elementary school in my home town of Tapei, Tawain. Later, when my beloved grandfather died of cancer, I was inspired to understand cancer biology.
At Kaohsiung Medical University I did research in molecular biology, for which I received the Undergraduate Innovative Research Award from Taiwan’s National Science Council. During my graduate research at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in National Chung Kung University, I became interested in understanding how tumor cells escape from different cancer therapies.
When I came to the U.S., I spent a year at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle, where my research was to identify novel genes that inhibit myc-induced apoptosis. My PhD dissertation research at the University of Washington / FHCRC focused on understanding underlying mechanisms and physiological significance of the cell adhesion protein, aE-catenin. After obtaining my PhD in 2008, I received the 2009 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. In April, 2009 I joined the laboratory of Elaine Fuchs at Rockefeller University.