Shedding New Light on “Preventive Medicine”: The Kidney Cancer Target Discovery Project Proposed by Dr. Tien Hsu’s Team Stood Out
Collaborating with faculty from Academia Sinica, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Hsu Tien, Dean of the College of Health Sciences & Technology at NCU, proposed the project “Analysis of Kidney Macrophage Population at the Single-Cell Level—Marker and Target Discovery in Kidney Inflammation and Cancer” in the “Innovative Translational Research: Novel Targets in Human Health and Diseases” program promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). Dr. Hsu’s project stood out in the fierce competition and won the honor for NCU!
Based in the “Matrix Biology Laboratory” on the campus of NCU, Dr. Hsu and his team applied the world’s cutting-edge technology to analyzing characteristics of one single immunocyte in the tissues of kidney cancer, researching on new prevention mechanism and targeted therapy and finding fresh turning points for innovative translational research. Another established research niche is the mastering of the “animal mode;” that is, to modify the genes of mice, observe the evolvement, and further experiment on human specimens. Dr. Hsu brought the technology from the U.S. to Taiwan and there has been a solid foundation of such a technique for ten years in Taiwan. The experiment is conducted with extreme caution and pursues rigorousness and reliability.
“The other significant concept about controlling kidney cancer is the control of the surrounding ‘microenvironment.’ Since cancer does not simply have to do with cancer cells themselves, the surrounding tissues are highly involved as well. If we can control the surrounding microenvironment, we may be able to block cancers properly and further control and prevent cancers, and that is the fundamental way for cancer prevention. Our team aims to develop a new method through academic research to find the key to the transformation from kidney inflammation to kidney cancer and to step further in translational medicine,” said Dr. Hsu.
