Department of Life Sciences
 Biological Sciences
– Botany, Zoology, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry,
Molecular and Cell Biology, etc.
 Agricultural Sciences
– Agronomy, Horticulture, Forestry, Fishery, Animal Husbandry,
Veterinary Science, Agricultural Chemistry, Food Science, etc.
 Medical Sciences
– Basic Medical Sciences: Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology,
Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Molecular Medicine,
Epidemiology, Public Health and Occupational Medicine, Legal
Medicine and Forensic Science, etc.
– Clinical Sciences: Internal Medicine, Surgery, Radiology, Nuclear
Medicine, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Dentistry, etc.
 National Science and Technology Programs
– Agricultural Biotechnology,
– Genomics Medicine,
– Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.
1996-2005 Annual Budget, Dept. of Life Sciences
(Thousand USD)
150,000
108,101108,477
100,000
87,918
66,437
115,264
90,533
77,431 77,960
57,028
49,588
50,000
0
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Life Sciences Grant Applications and Funding
(Grant Number)
6000
100%
90%
4,719
4,798
4,590
5000
4,348
72%
80%
4,157
70% 70% 71%
4,900
65%
70%
4000
58%
3,162
68%
60%
65%
2,944
64%
64%
2,786
60%
3,684
3000
50%
3,123
2,842
2,246
40%
2,8202,7902,9362,853
2,601
2000
Application Numbers
30%
2,201
2,0162,069
Funding Numbers
20%
1000 1,467
10%
Funding Rate ( % )
0
0%
Year `96 `97 `98 `99 `00(1)`00(2) `01 `02 `03 `04 `05
Department of Life Sciences
Funding Policy
 Individual Grant
 Program Project
 Frontier Science Program
 Team of Excellence Program
 Inter-ministerial Health Food R & D Program
 Inter-disciplinary Integration Program
 International(Bilateral) Collaboration Program
Industrial-University Collaboration R & D Program
Biotechnology Successful Investment Program
 National Science and Technology Research Program
Genomic Medicine S & T Research Program
Biotechnology Pharmaceuticals S & T Research Program
Agriculture Biotechnology S & T Research Program
Bioengineering Program Project
 To focus on research fields with integrated efforts
of inter-departments, inter-institutes, and interuniversities.
 To promote international collaboration
Major research areas:
1. Functional tissue/molecular imaging
2. Mobile monitoring and distributing wireless
integrated sensors system
3. Biomedical optics and biophotonic monitoring
systems
4. New biomechanics of tissues, cells, and genes
5. Tissue and cell engineering and new
biomaterials
Bioinformatics
Multidisciplinary Research Programs

Genome annotation and development
of its tools
 Microarray and proteomic data
analysis and value-added data bank
 Macromolecular sequencing and
structural data analysis
 Phylogenetic data analysis
Industry-University Cooperative
Research Program
To promote advanced and applied
technology research by the academic
community, and also to encourage
enterprises to actively participate in
applied academic research, and thereby to
enhance the R&D capabilities and skilled
manpower of private sectors.
The Budget for the National Science
and Technology Program
million USD
Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
NSTPAB 5.31 3.85 4.57 9.47 10.97 6.67 6.81
NSTPBP 4.29 3.10 6.58 4.48 6.25 8.14 7.50
- 56.49 53.40 36.00 36.80 31.25
NRPGM 2.35
SARS
NSTPAB：National Science and Technology Program for Agricultural Biotechnology
NSTPBP：National Science and Technology Program for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals
NRPGM ：Nation Research Program for Genomic Medicine
SARS ：SARS Research Project
Agricultural Biotechnology National Program
Fifteen Research Teams
 Development and integration of floral (Chrysanthemum and
orchids) production and marketing systems.
 Integration and industrial application of conventional and geneticengineered post-harvest technology for vegetables and fruits.
 Integration of key techniques for organic farming (e.g. stress
tolerant varieties, bioprotectants and biofertilizers).
 Promotion and establishment of production systems for high
quality Chinese herbs and health foods.
 Development of fry production systems with quality assurance
(shrimp and grouper) and related transportation and marketing
technology.
 Biotechnology applications in the production of Taiwan tilapia for
international market.
 Application of biotechnology in the improvement of cage-culture
and processing technology for Cobia.
Agricultural Biotechnology National Program
Fifteen Research Teams
 Agricultural waste treatments in generating value-added byproducts.
 Inventing and improving production systems for high quality
swine and chicken.
 Developing biological agents (vaccines and adjuvants) for
plant- and animal-related applications.
 Application of transgenic technology for ornamental plants
and fishes, and for medical and feed industries.
 Development of molecular techniques for diagnostic systems
and marker-assisted breeding.
 Development of bioreactor technologies for producing
industrial and medical materials.
 Establishment of GMO assessment and accrediting systems.
 Research and development of novel functional genomics
based technologies for biotechnological industries.
D.C.N. Chang
SWEET RICE
transgenic rice seeds expressing
an amylopullulanase (APU) gene
S.M. Yu and J.F. Shaw
National Program in Biotechnology
and Pharmaceuticals(1999-2006)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Natural Products
Synthetic Chemicals
Protein Drugs
Protein Chips
Drug Screening and Evalulation
Clinical Trials
Industrial Applications and Technology
Transfer
R&D on YC-1 and its Derivatives Project
Academics：China Medical University（Sheng-Chu
Kuo），National Taiwan University College of
Medicine（Che-Ming Teng）
Enterprise：Health BioX Biotech. Co.（Fang-Yu Lee）
Niche：PCT patents with multi-indications, over 170
international SCI papers acknowledgements
Challenge：Compete with other pharmaceutical
companies such as Aventis and Bayer etc.
Targets：1. YC-1 clinical trial (US and Taiwan)
2. R&D on follow-up YC-1 derivatives
3. Establishment of a R&D Center
Project for Development of Microfluidic
Biochip Systems
Academy：National Cheng Kung University（ Gwo-Bin Lee, Shu-Hui Chen,
Jiunn-Jong Wu, Ching-Hsing Luo, Mei-Ling Tsai, Jyh-Ming Ting,
Chih-Ching Chang）
Enterprise：President Biosystem Inc.
Niche：7 patents (10 in patent application process)
Challenge：Competition with overseas companies
Targets：1. Develop a series of advanced biochip systems
2. Development of biochips for early detection of virus/bacteria –
related diseases.
The developed microfluidic biochip systems have successfully demonstrated
their capability for fast diagnosis of virus/bacteria-related diseases. This
project will collaborate several local companies to start up a competitive bioMEMS company.
可攜式細胞前處理及PCR模組
Portable apparatus for cell pretreatment and PCR chips.
S en so r
H eaters
PCR溫度控制元件照片
National Science and Technology Program
on Genomic Medicine (2002 - 2009)
INNOVATIVE
RESEARCH
CANCER
Interanational
Cooperation
Industrial
Cooperation
INFECTIOUS
DISEASES
LIVER
LUNG
ELSI
HIGHLY HERITABLE
DISEASES
Core facilities
The National Program attempts to coordinate
national resources and to fund projects that are in
line with Taiwan’s strategic development.
Comprehensive cores have been established to
support various scientific programs.
Six major core facilities:
Mutant Mouse Facility and Disease Models
Clinical Tissues Bank
High Throughput Genomics Facilities
Proteomics and Structural Biology Facilities
Bioinformatics
Innovation and Key Technology Development
Result in Lung Cancer
1. Many tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) had 5’CpG hypermethylation
in their promoter and/or exon1 regions in lung cancer.
2. These TSGs are: hMLH1 and hMSH2, p16INK4a), p14ARF, FHIT, BLU,
RASSF1A, RARβ, HIF, SLIT2, BRCA1/2.
3. Overexpression of DNA methyltransfer enzymes (DNMTs)
contributes to NSCLC tumorigenesis and associate with 5’CpG
hypermethylation in their target TSGs.
The mRNA and protein of DNMTs were highly expressed in tumor tissue.
ENU mutagenesis mouse models of
human metabolic disease
ENU mutagenesis established mice with mitochondrial
branched-chain aminotransferase deficiency resembling
human maple syrup urine disease. (J. Clin. Invest. 2004)