Welcome to Scientific Formosa! My name is Lishan Chen 陳力山. I named my webpage Scientific Formosa because I am a scientist from Taiwan. Although I currently resided in Kirkland (a small town across Lake Washington from Seattle), I am very proud of my birth place, Taiwan, who used to be called Formosa (beautiful island). I hope my website can be both logical and beautiful! Enjoy!
I am a biologist, molecular biologist, or, to be more exact, pathological molecular biologist.
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Currently, I work on human aging disease. Our laboratory is part of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) in the department of Pathology at the University of Washington. What we study is a rare aging disease called Werner Syndrome. Werner Syndrome is a genetic disease, caused by mutations in a gene encoded a RecQ helicase (WRN). It is rare, because it requires that both copies of the gene in patient's genome are mutated. The laboratory is hosting a International Registry for Werner Syndrome. Werner Syndrome is an adult on-set premature aging disorder (Progeria), which is less severe than the child on-set premature aging disorder, the Hutchson-Gilford Disease. Hutchson-Gilford Disease is also a genetic disease caused by deletion in the Lamin A gene (LMNA). Unlike Werner Syndrome, it only takes one deleted copy of the Lamin A gene to cause the disease. Recently, our laboratory has discovered that point mutation in the Lamin A gene will cause the teen on-set premature aging disease. Although the mutation in on the same Lamin A gene as the Hutchson-Gilford Disease, but the mutation is caused by amino acid substitution rather than lose of several amino acid residues on the Lamin proteins.
Chen L, Lee L, Kudlow B, Dos Santos HG, Sletvold O,Shafeghan Y, Botha EG, Garg A, Hanson NB, Martin GM, Miam IS, Kennedy BK, Oshima J. 2003. LMNA mutation identify a new genetic subset of subjects with progeroid features of Werner Syndrome. The Lancet. 362:440-445.[PDF]/[Commentary] / [Commentary]
Chen L, Huang S, Lee L, Davalos A, Schiestl RH, Campisi J, and Oshima J. 2003. WRN, the protein deficient in Werner syndrome, plays a critical structural role in optimizing DNA repair. Aging Cell. 2:191-199. [PDF]/[Commentary]
Chen L, and Oshima J. 2002. Werner syndrome. J Biomed. Biotech. 2(2): 46-54. [PubMed]/[PDF]
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My postdoctoral training is to study a plant disease call Crown Gall. Crown Gall is a plant tumor caused by a bacterium named Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Agrobacterium tumefaciens transfers a piece of its DNA from its Ti-plasmid into host, and the expression of the transferred DNA will cause the tumor formation in plants. Scientists have replaced the disease DNA with their favorite DNA and utilized this bacteria as vehicle to create transgenic plants. I involved in several aspects of the Agrobacterium research, including identifying host factors involved in the disease, characterizing virulence protein chaperones, bacterial transfer system for the host-bound DNA, conjugation and pilus systems, and the genome project of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58.
Pantoja M, Chen L, Chen YC, and Nester EW. 2002. Agrobacterium Type IV secretion is a two-step process in which export substrates associate with the virulence protein VirJ in the periplasm. Mol. Microbio. 45(5):1325-1335. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Chen L, Chen YC, Wood DW, and Nester EW. 2002. A new type IV secretion system that promotes conjugal transfer in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. J. Bact. 184(17): 4838 – 4845. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Wood DW, Setubal JC, Kaul R, Monks DE, Kitajima JP, Okura VK, Zhou Y, Chen L, Wood GE, Almeida NF Jr, Woo L, Chen Y, Paulsen IT, Eisen JA, Karp PD, Bovee D Sr, Chapman P, Clendenning J, Deatherage G, Gillet W, Grant C, Kutyavin T, Levy R, Li MJ, McClelland E, Palmieri A, Raymond C, Rouse G, Saenphimmachak C, Wu Z, Romero P, Gordon D, Zhang S, Yoo H, Tao Y, Biddle P, Jung M, Krespan W, Perry M, Gordon-Kamm B, Liao L, Kim S, Hendrick C, Zhao ZY, Dolan M, Chumley F, Tingey SV, Tomb JF, Gordon MP, Olson MV, Nester EW. 2001. The genome of the natural genetic engineer Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58. Science 294(5550): 2317-2323. [PubMed]/[PDF]/[Commantary]
Chen L, Li CM, and Nester EW. 2000. Transferred DNA (T-DNA)-associated proteins of Agrobacterium tumefaciens are exported independently of virB. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 97(13): 7545-7550. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Deng W, Chen L, Peng W, Liang X, Sekeguchi S, Gordon MP, Comai L, and Nester EW. 1999. VirE1 is a specific molecular chaperone for the exported single-stranded DNA binding protein VirE2 in Agrobacterium. Mol. Microbiol. 31(6): 1795-1807. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Deng W, Chen L, Wood DW, Metcalfe T, Liang X, Gordon MP, Comai L, and Nester EW. 1998. Agrobacterium VirD2 protein interact with plant host cyclophilins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95(12): 7040-7045. [PubMed]/[PDF]
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My PhD thesis is on the study of plant amino acid transport systems in Arabidopsis thaliana. As well as sugar, amino acid is the main product that plants assimilate using the energy capture from light in the process called photosynthesis. Because green plants are multicellular organisms and only certain cells can produce amino acids (source), those products need to be transferred to other cells (sink). The travel from source to sink is mediated by vascular tissues and membrane transporters, thus they are essential for growth. I have used yeast to identify amino acid transporters by functional complementation, and further identify important structural and functional residues in those transporters. In additional, I have also identified mutants in Arabidopsis with amino acid transport deficiency.
Chen L, Ortiz-Lopez A, Jung A, and Bush DR. 2001. ANT1, an aromatic and neutral amino acids transporter in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 125(4): 1813-1820. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Chen L and Bush DR. 1997. LHT1, a high affinity lysine and histidine transporter from Arabidopsis with strong expression in siliques and roots. Plant Physiol. 115(3): 1127-1134. [PubMed]/[PDF]
Bush DR, Chiou T-J, and Chen L. 1996. Molecular analysis of plant sugar and amino acid transporters. J. Exp. Bot. 47: 1205-1210.[Abstract]/[PDF]
Hsu L-C, Chiou T-J, Chen L, and Bush DR. 1993. Cloning a plant amino acid carrier by functional complementation of a yeast amino acid transport mutant. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90(16): 7741-7745. [PubMed]/[PDF]
I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct individual research projects in my undergraduate years. I participated in the early phase of cloning of a waxy locus in Sorghum in my senior year. In my junior year, I sequenced the colicin E9 gene and perform nested deletion study on the insecticidal crystal protein gene of Bacillus thringeneses.
Tissue Culture:
PEI transfection: A protocol using PEI to transform animal cell lines.
Molecular Biology:
ABI sequencing: A protocol using 1/8 of the Big Dye reagent for sequencing plasmid.
Cell Biology:
DAPI staining:
National Center of Biological Information: the most useful biology site. containing PubMed, OMIM, Gene & Disease, Human Genome Resource, Mouse Genome Resource, Entrez, BLAST.
Washington Biotechnology & Medical Technology Online: a local resource for biotechnology industry.
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Formosa is the old name for Taiwan given by the westerner. Taiwan is a small island nation on the west ream of the Pacific. Taipei, the largest city in the north of the island, is the capital city of Taiwan.
Although Taiwan is so beautiful in Westerner's eyes to deserve the name Formosa, she was a deserted land in China's history. Taiwan was even described as "an island with no singing birds and no fragrant flowers" by Lee Hong Chang 李鴻章 in Ching Dynasty 清朝. She was ruled by Spain, the Netherlands, China, and was given away to Japan when China lost to Japan. After World War II, Japan returned Taiwan to Mr. Chiang Chi-she 蔣介石's government in China. However, Mr. Chiang did not physically took over Taiwan until he lost the fight to mainland communist Chairman Mao.
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People in Taiwan become three races, the Mountainer, the Taiwanese, and the Mainlander. The Mountainer are people live in the mountain region of Taiwan representing the very early immigrant reside in Formosa, the Taiwanese are later immigrants who reside in the flat region that are mostly from Fu Chien province of China, and the Mainlander are people came with Mr. Chiang. The Mainlander won the 228 incident in Taiwan and established their ruling status. During his dictatorship and the ruling of Gwo Ming Dung 國民黨, many of the policies are biased and favored the Mainlander. Early on, the Taiwanese called the two consecutive ruling party "Dog" (the Japanese) and "Pig" (the Mainlander). We think the Pig is worse than the Dog, because Pig simply consume and Dog will at least watch the door. Because Mr. Chiang wanted to go back to China, Taiwan was used as the resource for his hope. In addition, Taiwan was brain washed to engaged in a war with China for his ego. It was fortunate that Mr. Chiang needed money to fight with China, he encouraged the diligent Taiwanese people to work hard and produce. Although Mr. Chiang's ultimate goal later became a dream never come true, Taiwanese people produce so many goods for the whole wide world that MIT are "Made in Taiwan".
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The prosperity in economy triggered political awakening for the Taiwanese people. Finally, Taiwan had the first president, president Lee Deng Hwey 李登輝, through general election. Now, Taiwan have the second elected president, president Chen Shui Bian 陳水扁. What is more significant is that president Chen is from the long time opposition party, Ming Ching Dung 民進黨, which means that any political parties have the chance to lead the island nation if they win the popular vote. Now, Taiwan still faces the threat from the current dictator of the communist China. The Chinese do everything they could to claim the island which they have never physically ruled.
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Taipei is the capital city of Taiwan. Like many big city in Asia, Taipei is overpopulated. One of the most amazing thing in Taipei is the public transportation. There are bus stop in all interactions in major arteries in Taipei, and the routes are arranged to go straight east to west or north to south across town. Therefore, virtually 2 buses would take you to any places you want to be, and there are buses every minutes in major routes. Foreigners love the National Palace Museum in Taipei, because there are so many treasures from China that Mr. Chiang brought with him.
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I personally love the natural beauty of Taiwan. There are several national parks that is worth visiting. Kenting National Park 墾丁國家公園 is my favorite. It is in the southern most tip of Taiwan surround with beautiful coastal line. Beaches, coastal parks, mountain trails, caves, and tropical forests are just a few things that you can find in here. One of the most amazing place is the seashell sand beach 貝殼砂, it is a sandy beach naturally filled with fine small seashell !
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Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園is another great place worth mentioning. It is on the east side of Taiwan near the city of HwaLian 花蓮. It is a mountain valley park goes deeply into the heart of Taiwan's mountain region. Beautiful mountain line, rocks with peculiar shape, marbles, wild bats and forests are just some of the attractions. The travel bureau has arranged a special train tour combine with many view points in the East, my mom told me that it is great!
Taiwan is also known for the food. While Hong Kong might be famous for DingSum, Taiwan has the most of all styles with superb quality. Because Taiwan was once controlled by Japan, many Japanese restaurants serve very authentic Japanese dishes. Because many Mainlander came with Mr. Chiang, many authentic cuisines from China were introduced into Taiwan. On the other hand, the rapid modernization of Taiwan allow Taiwan to take in Western dishes. Also, Taiwan is famous for many of its small local secrets. Let's not forget that Pearl Tea originated from Taiwan. Because of keen competition, the price is good, the variety is great, and the quality is simply fantastic!
Here are some of the restaurants that I have personally visited and would highly recommend:
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Bai Gu Uam 佰菇園: Specialized in Mushroom. They serve variety dishes made from mushroom; including hot pot . Even their snake is dry mushroom and is delicious. They will introduce you to the mushrooms they are using for the dishes and the believed benefit. It is casual dining, but it is a mushroom lover's heaven!
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Gia Fu Japanese Restaurant 家福日本料理: Family style Japanese restaurant. My mom introduces me this restaurant. The owner, who is also the chef, gets the fish everyday and they are always fresh. All their sushi and sashimi are great, and the miso soup is yammi! The chef will create new kind of sushi upon request. The price is exceptionally good for the quality. They also deliver.
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Gino Cafe 奇諾義大利餐廳: When East meets West. This is a Italian restaurant with American atmosphere and Asian flavor. The pasta are modified using oriental materials and they are marvelous!
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Ding Tai Fung 頂泰豐: Chinese style dingsum. This restaurant is in the must list of places the Japanese tourists do in Taiwan. It is usually very crowded during regular meal hour. The food is pricey, but is very good! Many restaurants compare their dingsums to Ding Tai Fung's is a guarantee that they are the highest standard to beat! Small bin Bau 小籠包 is the most popular.
I did not received anything in return to mention these restaurants, just based on my personal experience.
Yam 蕃薯藤 - Taiwan web site, with instant news, jokes, and many other activities. They also provide free email and storage space. This is my favorite Taiwanese web site.
Taiwan Daily 台灣日報- Internet version of a Taiwanese news paper. I enjoy the column from 金恆煒 the most.
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The Luv, Paris |
Yuching 郁靜 is the most important person in my life. We are college classmates, and are best friends since. She loves to keep everything simple, and she herself is as simple and as pure could be. She is like a gentle breeze, so present to be surround with. We always have endless things to talk about, so our favorite pass time is to sit on our kitchen nook, with a cup of Taiwanese tea and the music playing, and share the day. We also like to do yard work, so we could have simple and elegant garden to enjoy. However, if you think that she is a simple little woman, you can not be more wrong! She is creative and adventurous; she usually is the person to come up with a novel, genius, but still simple, solutions.
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Skagit Valley, Washington |
Yuching is a scientist, and she is working in a biotech company called Celltech at Bothell Washington. She does terrific job in the company; I know this because we have worked in the same laboratory for a while. She plays piano, and she was the person who introduce me to the classical music. She is also a part time patent application translator, and she translate Chinese, English as well as Japanese patents. She is also very good in computer, and she is my personal computer system and Oracle certified database administrator.
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Coco stays behind the carpet |
Coco is my dog. He is a Pomeranian. Coco was given to us from our friend who received Coco from animal shelter but was forced to give him up because of allergy. He arrived at our family at around Christmas time at 2001, and is the best Christmas gift ever!
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Coco knows how to relax |
Coco is a well mannered doggy. He stays out of the carpet and does not pee inside the house. When Coco needs to take care of his business, he will go to the patio door and knock on it. He will let us know if he needs water by going to his water bowl and use his tag to touch the bowl. Although he hates shower like most man does, he still takes a bath once a week. Coco knows to shake hands as his ways to say "Hello!"
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| Coco & his pet "peeve" |
Coco is smart. He is also tri-lingual, and understand Chinese, Taiwanese, and English. He also reads my sign language. His favorite sport is fetch; tennis balls, toy birdy, Frisbee, and those are things he will try to catch up in the air. He also crazily chases the red laser dot pointer like cats. Coco has his own pet "peeve", and his favorite food is chunk meat in a can. He would do anything for a bit of it.
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UW Campus, Seattle |
I am an average person, and fortunately enough to born in a great family, have the best wife in the world, and feel grateful of all were given to me. I attended school without knowing what I wanted, ended up getting my PhD. I seems to have a pretty good publication record as a young scientist, but my biggest achievement is to finally realize that my family is the most important thing to me.
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| Mount Rainier |
You can read my resume if you are interested in what I have done in my career. I am very grateful to have met so many talented people who have helped me throughout my research. However, I like to experience new things and usually get over board. For instance, I wanted to understand how the computer database work in a genome project and ended up with an Oracle iDeveloper certificate. Recently, I am interested in financing because I have to learn how to manage our retirement, and I am also very interested in patent because I am applying one. Who knows I might end up becoming a an financial planner or another law degree! I recently like to taste wine as a hobby and yard work is another of my favorite thing. I think it would be fun to become a landscape architect, but I wish I would not become alcoholic!
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| University of Washington |
I live in Kirkland, Washington now. Kirkland is a lovely resort town across Lake Washington from Seattle. Yuching picked Kirkland as the place she wants to live even before we moved to Washington state six years ago. We lived in an apartment in Lake City first, but eventually settled down in Kirkland. Kirkland is famous for her water front parks along Lake Washington, relax atmosphere, and many good restaurants. We love this place!
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Olympic National Park |
Lake Washington area rains a lot. Although I do not think this is true, I will help to spread the rumor around. Because of the rain, the area is green and the air is fresh all year round. Best of all, there are several National Parks within a couple of hours' drive: Mount Rainier, Olympic, Northern Cascade, and Mount St. Helen. In winter, although there is usually no snow in Seattle, there are at least three good places for skiers.
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Butchard Garden, Victoria |
It is also very close to the British Columbia, Canada. Whistler, Victoria, and Canadian Rockies are all fantastic places to visit and are perfect for many outdoor activities. With all these places, you can really stay for weeks and forget about the work at home. There are also great wines and fresh seafood in British Columbia. Of course, Vancouver is the place for Hong Kong style dingsum outside Asia.
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Cambridge, England |
I love to travel, and that is one of the reasons why we decide to settle down abroad. Besides many US destination, we have visited England. We have been to Cambridge, Yorkshire country (we are big fun of James Harriot), Lake District, and Scottish Highlands. Cambridge is OK, but it is very annoying that you have to pay to get into most of their buildings. The scenery is very nice.
I love Yorkshire county, probably because we have read all of James Harriot's books. We even went to Thirsk to take a picture of his office, which his son has taken over. We also went to the place that Mr. and Mrs. Harriot have their honeymoon, and the place BBC shot the series.
Like District is totally different from the Yorkshire county, but just as marvelous. It is quite a change when we cross the highway 7 from the Yorkshire. Scottish highland is of course one of the heavenly places that we have visited.
We only get to see Paris in France. The most amazing thing is that the best Chinese noodle we have ever had is at the Noodle King in Paris. It is so good that we had to come back from Holland to get another one of their noodles.
Google - My favorite search engine. It is the best!
Yahoo! - Good information site.