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Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America

September 2014 SCBA Newsletter 1

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK.....

September, 2014

Dear SCBA members:

Welcome to the September-2014 issue of the SCBA

Newsletter. I am delighted to update our progress on

organizing the SCBA 2015 International Symposium to be

held June 26-29, 2015 in Taipei. A star cast of speakers

including Nobel laureate Dr. Thomas Steitz and 14 members

of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences or Institute of

Medicine have graciously agreed to serve as Keynote or

Plenary Speakers. We foresee that the 2015 Symposium will

highlight exciting and valuable scientific progress in the

biological and biomedical science and will provide excellent

opportunities for vigorous interactions among outstanding

biological scientists as well.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our local host

institutions for their incredible endeavors on securing

financial support which has empowered the Scientific

Program Committee to recruit world-class scientists from

divergent research areas to share with us their innovative

discoveries in person, and to encourage more younger

generation scientists to attend the conference.

We now are with full gear organizing concurrent sessions.

There will be 8 time blocks with five sessions concurrently

and five speakers in each session. In other words, a total of

200 speakers will be accommodated in the concurrent

sessions. Based on previous experiences, these concurrent

sessions will be filled out quickly. If you have not responded

to the call for session proposals and have interest to, you may

follow the link below to see a concurrent session proposal

form with specifications.

http://www.scbasociety.org/Taipei-2015/Session_Proposal_F

orm.doc

The deadline for the proposal submission is Nov. 18, 2014.

Please make your submission via email to Dr. Xiang-Dong

Fu, Dr. Gen-Sheng Feng, and Dr. Hui Zheng at

(xdfu@ucsd.edu; gfeng@ucsd.edu; huiz@bcm.edu).

Your active participation in any form such as contributing

session ideas, serving on the committees, speaking at a

concurrent sessions, attending the symposium in Taipei, is

important for a successful Symposium. We are striving to

accomplish SCBA missions including providing the best

forums for our members for (1) networking, (2) professional

and scientific interactions, and (3) education for junior

members. We sincerely appreciate your inputs.

Let’s work together in fulfilling SCBA’s missions!

Respectfully yours,

Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.

SCBA President (2014-2015)

Dear Members of the SCBA,

We are very pleased to report that the organization and

preparation of our bi-annual SCBA conferences is going on

very smoothly. So far, we have already received 16 very

interesting session proposals and we look forward to

receiving more in various fields of biomedical sciences

before November 18, 2014. In this September issue of the

newsletter, we publish an interview report for Dr. Shu Chien

by Dr. John Shyy, Professor at UCSD. Dr. Chien is a pioneer

and world leader in the bioengineering field, member of the

National Academy of Sciences of USA, and recipient of the

National Medal of Science Award among many other honors

and awards. Dr. Yun Yen, former chair professor at the City

of Hope Medical Center in Los Angeles, is now the President

of Taipei Medical University. Here is an update for the

remarkable accomplishments of his presidency in 3 years. Dr.

Chuxia Deng, a distinguished scientist at NIH, is taking a

NOTES FROM THE SECRETARY

September 2014 NEWSLETTER Volume 29 Issue 3

Newsletter Editor: Gen-Sheng Feng, Ph.D. Production Editor: Chris Lau, Ph.D.

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NEWSLETTER Volume 29 Issue 3

September 2014 SCBA Newsletter 2

new challenge as the founding Dean of the faculty of Health

Science, the University of Macau. Dr. Yang Shi, American

Cancer Society Research Professor, shares with us his

interesting story of finding the 1st histone demethylase. At the

last, but not the least, we introduce you a rising star, Eric

Chen, who has just gradauted from Canyon Crest High

School in San Diego this year. Eric has won the 2013

Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology; the

2013 International Google Science Fair, and the 2014 Intel

Science Talent Search. In August, 2014, Eric started his new

life as a freshman at Harvard. Best wishes for your future,

Eric!

Respectfully yours,

Gen-Sheng Feng, Ph.D

SCBA Secretary (2014-2015)

Dear Members of the SCBA,

As you can see from the President’s report, the preparation

for the 2015 SCBA Biennial Symposium is well underway,

and we have received several donations to support the

various programs at the Symposium. These include a $10,000

donation from the Ming Jeang Foundation for the K.T. Jeang

Memorial Lecture, $5,000 from Tsai Fan Yu Foundation to

support the Dr. Tsai-Fan Yu Legacy Lecture, and $10,000

from Yale University International Anti-viral Symposia Fund

that will be used to support the trainees travel to the

Symposium. The generous donations from these

organizations are greatly appreciated. The SCBA’s finances

remain very strong and our membership continues to grow.

So far this year we have collected $4,676 of membership fees

and $1,460 of advisement fees. New members are always

welcome to join this great organization, so please encourage

your colleagues to become SCBA members.

Sincerely,

Respectfully yours,

Hui Zheng, Ph.D

SCBA Treasurer (2014-2015)

DR. SHYY’S INTERVIEW WITH DR. SHU CHIEN

- Please share your thoughts about the influence of your

Chinese culture and heritage upon you as an individual, a

scientist, and a teacher.

The Chinese culture has had a very strong influence on me as

a student, a researcher, and a teacher. I learned that the most

important things from Chinese culture are honesty, hard work,

integrity, and being ethical. This is the way of life that we

learned when growing up in a Chinese culture, which is very

important in our work on research and education. Actually, it

applies to any kind of profession. Being a Chinese, I really

appreciate having this kind of cultural heritage. Of course,

other kinds of cultural ethnic groups have similar traditions,

but none is as long and as strong as the Chinese. We are very

fortunate to have this kind of heritage and should use it to our

advantage.

- You are a very successful mentor throughout your academic

career; please share your experience in mentoring trainees.

I always care about my trainees or mentees. I think this is the

first requirement for a good mentor. Put yourself into their

shoes to realize what they need and how can you make them

better. Additionally, you need to transfer what you know

being a researcher, teacher, scientist, and collaborator to your

trainees. It is necessary to get their trust, confidence, and

friendship in order to have a really good relationship. Here, I

mean person-to-person friendship, not like one is more senior

than the other. My trainees and I are always friends, we work

together with a common goal. The second thing is to transfer

your knowledge effectively. There are several ways to

achieve this including meeting regularly. Sometimes the

conversation covers particular issues, or in other occasions,

NOTES FROM THE TREASURER

NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS

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NEWSLETTER Volume 29 Issue 3

September 2014 SCBA Newsletter 3

simply getting to know each other better. If every meeting

only involves serious discussion related to work, there won’t

be a solid friendship. I also learn from your trainee and I am

really grateful for that.

- Due to different educational backgrounds, students from

Mainland China or Taiwan are diligent in general but

sometimes lack creativity. How would you usually guide and

inspire them?

It depends on the individual, everyone learns in a different

way. We have to know what would excite the trainees and

what would inspire them? Not everyone responds to the same

thing the same way. You cannot use the same formula for

everyone to get them inspired and excited. One effective

approach is to set an example for the right way to do things

for the mentees to follow with their willingness. Another way

is to praise them for things they do right, large or small.

However, if you praise too much, it’s not very useful. If

they’re doing something right, praise and appreciate them to

reinforce their interest. When they’re not doing something

right, you have to tell them but don’t try to give them a hard

time. Never embarrass them in front of others. Being kind,

gentle, and positive is the key. You’re doing this for their

good and their future, not to try to put them down. At the end,

it’s still the person-to-person relationship and they will treat

you as a friend and respect you as a teacher. After all, as a

friend and a mentor, you wish them to be better, happy, and

successful; therefore we have a common goal.

- Please share your experience as a successful scientist.

My experience is that I always try my best. Whatever you do,

you always do the best you can by giving the intrinsic and

extrinsic constraints. Even in writing a letter, ensure that it is

clearly written. If you don’t try your best, you won’t get the

best results no matter how many times you try. When I was

in Academic Sinica in Taiwan, somebody noticed that my

stamps were always straight, never in any different direction.

Actually, I didn’t pay attention to do so; it just became a

habit. If it is correct the first time, you won’t have to do it

again. Like putting the stamp correctly, I just do it without

even thinking about it. As the Chinese proverb states “When

one piece of leaf falls down, you know autumn is coming’’;

one’s achievement can be projected from how one handles

the tiny little things. My advice is no matter what it is, just try

your best. Also, it is important to choose the right topic. If the

topic is not correctly chosen, you will not get very far, even

working very hard. The most important criteria in NIH grant

review are significance and innovation. You have to be

realistic and able to find the right solution in an innovative

way. Find the best possible way to tackle the problems,

considering all the resources and facilities. Integrate them

together and you can reach your full potential. Finally, but

not the least, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Today, there is

almost no single-authored paper; people with complementary

expertise work together to solve problems. You need to talk

to people, go to meetings, and share ideas. At the end of the

day, you would like to contribute something important to the

field, and you need to achieve this as a team.

- You have so many remarkable achievements; please name a

few that you are very proud of

The people I train are what I am most proud of. They are my

most rewarding experience. They will carry on the excellence

on research and education for generations. This is the most

enjoyable part. Of course, I learned from my teachers too. In

my early days, I did research on red blood cell deformability.

We were able to come up with a new idea about the

mechanism by which red blood cells deform and aggregate,

which generated 3 back-to-back papers in Science, and these

papers led to my collaboration with long-time colleague Dick

Skalak. In recent years, I’ve had the privilege of

collaborating with many outstanding colleagues working on

the endothelium. I think it is very exciting that we can

coordinate novel discoveries such as micro-RNA and

epigenetic changes into research on endothelial cell

responding to different flow patterns. Besides laboratory

research, I am very proud of the opportunity that I get to

contribute to the profession through working in organizations

such as the American Physiology Society, The Federation of

American Society of Experimental Biology, The American

Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the

Biomedical Engineering Society. I was elected to lead these

organizations just at the right time and was able to contribute

at critical times. I feel I am very fortunate. Of course, I had to

be prepared for that. There is a saying “chance is for the

prepared mind.” So we should be prepared all the time.

Speaking of preparation, I would like to divert the topic.

Whatever one does, one has to prepare ahead of time. When I

was a young faculty starting to give lectures, I used to

practice by taping. With an old fashioned two-reel tape

recorder, I listened to my lecture, made corrections, and

taped it again for 5-6 times. Only after I knew how I sounded

like to other people, my lecture then became clearer and more

organized. Through such practices, I broke my shyness

speaking in front of the public. When I was 25 years old, I

could not speak to a group of 30 people. Now I can come to

the podium to speak to any group of people on any subject

without preparation. I am not afraid or being shy anymore,

because I am always prepared. The same can be said with

slide presentations, I would go over every slide very carefully.

To date, I still make my own slides because I can prepare

them the way I want. For grant applications, I always try to

finish a month before the deadline, then I use the last month

to polish it. If someone tries to finish the grant writing on the

last day, he or she would make mistakes. I would like to

advise everyone to prepare everything ahead of time, as early

as possible. So when the product is finished, it is the best it

can be. In this manner, if the grant is not funded, you have no

regret because you have done your best. A person needs to

understand oneself honestly and assess oneself objectively

and accurately. Who am I and where do I stand? If you are

indeed the best, don’t worry about how difficult it is to get

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NEWSLETTER Volume 29 Issue 3

September 2014 SCBA Newsletter 4

the grant; you will get it, if not on the first try, you will get it

after more tries. But if you are not that good, you need to

make yourself better. We will always try to achieve

excellence; by excellence I do not mean better than others,

but to be the best you can be. Be competitive in terms of

achieving your best, but not too competitive such as just

wanting to beat others. The worst scenario is doing

something unfair to the other person. As I mentioned at the

beginning, ethics, honesty, hard work, integrity, and caring

for others are very important. In this competitive world, we

have to win by our own effort to achieve excellence, but not

by putting other people down.

- Right now, it’s very competitive in academic research,

particularly for the young scientists. Is there any advice you

would like to give to them?

The most important barrier for a person whose first language

is not English to overcome is the language. For those of us

who were not raised in an English speaking country, we have

to put in a lot of effort to overcome this. First, we have to

work very hard to make our writing as good as the

native-born Americans. In fact, if we try hard, we can even

be better. The other part is the spoken language. We have to

learn to improve our speaking. It is essential to learn to

express ourselves clearly and accurately. Sometimes, a little

bit of accent can be advantageous; people like that. However,

the accent cannot be so heavy that your spoken language

becomes not easily understandable. There are ways to

overcome this and you can change your English speaking if

you are determined and make efforts to achieve it. As I said,

you need to be honest with yourself; knowing your weakness

and be willing to correct it. Other important criteria for

achieving success in grant funding are innovation and

identification of significant problems and devise ways of

solving them. We should reach out to get advice, and seek

help whenever needed. We have to get used to accepting

criticism and make appropriate changes in accordance to

valuable inputs. Nobody is perfect; accepting criticism and

acting on it can make you a better individual.

- Is there any advice for scientists with Chinese heritage to

get into the melting pot?

Language is important; the other is understanding the

American culture. We should try to learn enough of that to be

a part of the American society. We should not limit our social

interactions to our own ethnic group. We need to reach out to

the main stream. I started to serve the professional societies

by working with the Chinese-American Medical Society in

New York. Working in this society, I learned how to deal

with people. Then, I used the experience I gained to work

with other professional societies without ethnical boundaries,

starting with the small ones and proceeding to larger ones.

While serving these societies, I devoted 100% of effort but

never ask for anything such as a position in the Society. After

others know what you can contribute to the group, you will

be asked to take leadership positions, which I never sought

on my own. Several times, I was dragged into leadership

positions in large main-stream national organizations. We

have to be willing and be prepared to serve. To give rather

than take is a natural thing for me to do. At the end, I am

very grateful that I received so many recognitions, way

beyond what I deserve. I did not anticipate or ask for them,

and they came to me. That made these recognitions extra

sweet.

A photo for Dr. Shu Chien and his wife Kuang-Chung (K.C.)

in the front, and Dr. John Shyy and his wife (Jenny) in the

back.

My wife Kuang-Chung (K.C.) and I met each other in our

medical student days in National Taiwan University. We

were married in New York City in 1957, i.e., 57 years ago. I

feel our wedding day is the important day in my life, because

it set the stage for our lovely family and our happy lives

together. We love and care for each other deeply. I know

K.C. would do anything that makes me happy, and I am the

same way. It happens that we see things similarly, probably

because of similar personality and cultural background, and

we rarely have disagreements. When we have disagreements,

we can talk it out and eventually understand each other even

better; there has been no need to get angry or upset. I feel we

are most fortunate. We have two lovely daughters and two

wonderful son-in-laws. Each couple has three daughters, so

we have six beautiful and bright granddaughters. We are

indeed blessed. We are most grateful for everything. K.C.

not only provides wonderful support at home, she also helps

immensely in my career. I honestly feel that she deserves at

least one-half, actually more than one-half, of the awards and

recognitions I receive.

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September 2014 SCBA Newsletter 5

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF DR. YUN YEN’S THREE YEARS AS

TMU PRESIDENT

1. Research accomplishments lead to top global rankings

Taipei Medical University is distinguished by its research, its

excellent teaching, and its service

to patients and society. In the past

three years, this record of

excellence has moved the

university into the top 50 Asian

universities. Its worldwide

ranking also has improved, and

TMU now is also in the top 50

universities specializing in

medicine and science, and in the

top 200 pharmacy and

pharmacology institutions according to the QS World

University Rankings.

The university’s research funding totaled NT$ 1.6 billion in

the most recent biennium, and faculty members published

1408 papers in SCI journals in 2013. This research effort has

been vastly increased during President Yen’s tenure with an

additional four research centers. These are the Center for

Cancer Research, the Center for Translational Medicine, the

Center for Neurotrauma and Neuroregeneration, and the

Center for Biomedical Devices and Prototyping Production.

These research centers are producing innovative and

outstanding results, such as the anti-cancer drug MPT0E028.

This drug is Taiwan’s first university-produced medication to

be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's

Investigational New Drug program. Phase I clinical trials in

human subjects have been completed, and patent applications

have been filed in 23 countries and completed in Taiwan.

Preliminary estimates of sales based on this drug’s licensing

are NT$ 600 million to NT$ 1 billion.

In addition to the new research centers, the university has

also established core facilities for Gene Sequencing, Mass

Spectrometry and Imaging, Organic Synthesis, Antibody

Core activities and Animal Laboratories.

In part because of these excellent facilities, TMU has been

awarded national-level research projects involving nearly

NT$ 300 million in funding from the Ministry of Health and

Welfare for the Cancer Research Center for Excellence from

2010-2017. The same ministry has allocated NT$ 340 million

for the Clinical Trials Center for Excellence over the

2005-2016 period. The Translational Cancer Research Center

received an Aim for the Top University Project grant of NT$

100 million from the Ministry of Education.

2. Innovations and honors in teaching, hiring, promotion

and training

However, TMU’s awards for excellent teaching and

personnel training extend far beyond the university’s

specialized research areas. Since 2006, the university has an

unbroken record of Ministry of Education support from the

Program for Promoting Teaching Excellence Universities.

This funding of an additional NT$ 600 million has assisted

the university in achieving such milestones as the Taiwan

Medical Accreditation Council’s Second Period

Comprehensive Evaluation accreditation. Always welcoming

innovation and taking new ideas further, TMU also has

recently introduced massive open online courses (MOOCs).

The university also established a series of medical simulation

educational systems including a Group Objective Structured

Clinical Examination, an Informatization Objective

Structured Clinical Examination and a Team Resource

Management simulation.

During President Yen’s tenure as TMU’s leader, the

university recruited 158 faculty members and about 50

post-doctoral researchers. Innovations in the hiring and

promotion system during this period include amended

regulations that allow specialists in different fields to have

comparable opportunities for promotion. Research-oriented

faculty members may present their experiments’ results

instead of submitting published journal articles.

Academic-industry-type faculty members may submit patents,

and teaching-oriented faculty members may present national

awards instead of published journal articles.

Other innovations allowing more diverse and productive

career opportunities include the MD-PhD degree program

that has cultivated about 40 physician scientists so far. TMU

also encourages students of medicine and dentistry to pursue

PhD degrees in interdisciplinary fields.

3. Academia-industry collaboration

Taipei Medical University has had partnerships with more

than 300 companies since 2003, and the value of these

research partnerships is estimated at up to NT$ 1 billion,

while technology transfers earned an estimated NT$ 210

million. TMU is the nation’s leader in securing research and

development funding from private enterprises. These efforts

have been highly productive, as TMU has fostered 67

vendors and established six separate research-based spin-off

companies since 2004.

In fact, TMU is the only private university that has received

all three of the highest academia-industry collaboration

evaluation awards from the Ministry of Education. The

university has established its own biotech company to

manage such intellectual properties and funding.

4. Steady progress in fund-raising and globalization