ABOUT OUR LAB
NEWS
Welcome to the Lai Lab at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Our research focuses on molecular bioimaging, cell-to-cell communication and gene therapy. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes and microvesicles are nanometer-sized particles released by cells to transfer proteins, nucleic acids and lipids to communicate locally and distally. By contrast, abnormal cells exploit EVs as a means to guide normal cells for disease propagation. While the (patho)physiological functions of EVs have been reported, it remains unclear as to how cells employ them as a communication network. Our lab combines our expertise on imaging and genetic engineering to develop novel imaging technologies to further our understanding and application of EV-based cell-to-cell communications.
Investigating DNA repair dynamics is another main research arm of Lai Lab. Eukaryotic cells constantly repair DNA to maintain their genome integrity and cell viability. In fact, DNA repair dynamic plays a key role in the efficacy of cancer and gene therapies. However, studying DNA repair in vivo is challenging where conventional methods typically require disruption of cells/animals. Our research focuses on developing non-disruptive and highly sensitive methods to track DNA repair dynamics and enhance cancer and genome therapy developments.
EV-based Cell-to-Cell Communication
(Wu et al., 2020, Advanced Science)
Live-cell Imaging of EVs at Subcellular Resolution
In vivo Imaging of Intravenously Administered EVs
(Wu et al., 2020, Advanced Science)
IVIS Imaging
(Wu et al., 2020, Advanced Science)
Live-cell Super-resolution Imaging of EVs
(Chien et al., 2020, Nucleic Acids Research)
Multiplexed Bioluminescent DNA DSB Reporter
2020 December
Congratulations to Bryan John Magoling (孟古寧) on receiving the 2020 IAMS Young Fellow Oral Presentation Award!
2020 December
Congratulations to Anthony Wu (吳晏瑭) on receiving the 2020 IAMS Annual Award for Outstanding Publication by a Junior Researcher!
2020 November
Congratulations to Anthony Wu (吳晏瑭) on receiving 2nd Place at Oral Presentation Contest of the 2020 Taiwan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Autumn Camp!
2020 November
Congratulations to Jasper Chien (簡哲永) on receiving Honorable Mention at Oral Presentation Contest of the 2020 Taiwan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Autumn Camp!
2020 August
Congratulations to Anthony Wu (吳晏瑭) on our latest publication in Advanced Science, "Multiresolution Imaging Using Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer Identifies Distinct Biodistribution Profiles of Extracellular Vesicles and Exomeres with Redirected Tropism"!
2020 August
Congratulations to Jasper Chien (簡哲永) on our collaborative work published in Nucleic Acids Research with Dr. Christian Badr at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Dr. Steven Lin at Academia Sinica, "A multiplexed bioluminescent reporter for sensitive and non-invasive tracking of DNA double strand break repair dynamics in vitro and in vivo"!
2020 July
Congratulations to Lai Lab on receiving the Excellent Young Scholar Research Grant (科技部優秀年輕學者研究計畫) from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan.
2020 April
Please see our recently deposited preprint at bioRxiv, "Multi-resolution imaging using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer identifies distinct biodistribution profiles of extracellular vesicles and exomeres with redirected tropism"!
2020 March
Please see our recently deposited preprint at bioRxiv, "A multiplexed bioluminescent reporter for sensitive and non-invasive tracking of DNA double strand break repair dynamics in vitro and in vivo", via collaboration with Dr. Christian Badr (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School) and Dr. Steven Lin (Academia Sinica)!
Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica
No. 1, Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan
