We create and apply new technologies to explore biological phenomena!
ABOUT OUR LAB
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
(Wu et al., 2020, Advanced Science)
IVIS Imaging
In vivo Imaging of Intravenously Administered EVs
(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
NEWS
2022 September
Congratulations to Rachel Hei-Yu Lam (林熙如) on winning the 2022 IAMS Summer Research Internship Presentation Award!
2022 July
Congratulations to Lai Lab on receiving the International Outstanding Young Scholars Research Grant (國際年輕傑出學者研究計畫) from the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan!
2022 May
Congratulations to Lai Lab on receiving the 2022 Young Scholars' Creativity Award (年輕學者創新獎) from the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship (傑出人才發展基金會) !
2022 January
Congratulations to our collaborative work published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical with Dr. Gwo-Bin Lee at National Tsing Hua University, "Isolation and digital counting of extracellular vesicles from blood via membrane-integrated microfluidics"!
2022 January
Congratulations to Anthony Wu (吳晏瑭) on receiving 3rd place of Chien-Tien Hsu's Oral Presentation Award (徐千田優秀論文獎 口頭論文競賽 優等) at the 2022 Chinese Society of Cell and Molecular Biology and Taiwan Oncology Society Joint Meeting!
2021 November
Congratulations to Jasper Chien (簡哲永) on receiving the 2021 IAMS Annual Award for Outstanding Publication by a Junior Researcher!
2021 November
Congratulations to Anthony Wu (吳晏瑭) on receiving the Excellent Thesis Award（優秀論文獎）from Wang Ming-Ning Memorial Foundation （王民寧先生紀念基金會）!
2021 September
Please see our recent review in Nature Methods on in vivo imaging of extracellular vesicles with Drs. Frederik Verweij, Niel van GuiIlaume van Niel, and ISEV Imaging Workshop.
2021 August
Congratulations to Lai Lab on receiving the Young Scientist Award (青年醫學科技獎) from YungShin Tien Te Lee Biomedical Foundation (永信李天德醫學基金會) for our recent works on multi-resolution EV imaging and redirected organotropism, as well as non-invasive tracking of DNA repairs!
2021 June
Congratulations to Jasper Chien (簡哲永) on our latest collaborative protocol paper in Nature Protocols with Dr. Christian Badr (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School), "Multiplexed bioluminescence-mediated tracking of DNA double-strand break repairs in vitro and in vivo"!
Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica
No. 1, Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan