Team:NYMU-Taipei/Human Practices
2018/1/26 FIRDI
In the early morning of Jan 26th, we hurried from Taipei to Hsinchu to visit Food Industry Research and Development Institute(FIRDI). Under the guidance of senior researchers in the institute, we came to know the importance of microorganisms in food industry and the institute’s dedication to preserving biological resources in the past 50 years.
More importantly, we discussed with three experts, research scientist Guey-Yuh Liou, senior research scientist Hing-Yuen Chan, and associated research scientist Li-Wen Yu, ideas and topics we generated last year in hopes of diminishing the obstacles we were faced with. The experts thought through the ideas with us and suggested possible problems and potential market demands of the topics. With the help of the experts, we acquired numerous inspirations and new directions.
We are thankful for the help from the experts in FIRDI and Dr. Chou Tzu-Ho, who led this visit to the institute. What we have learned will continue to foster our ideas and projects.
2018/4/28 prof. Wen-Chuan Kuo
After a long period of brainstorming, we have finally determined our topic to be curing hair loss. We figured that it might be a good idea to use follicle growing cycle as an index for success of hair loss prevention. We also hope to manipulate OCT in observing follicles so as not to harm the follicle as in biopsy.
We visited professor Wen-Chuan Kuo of National Yang-Ming University, Institute of Biophotonics. She kindly analyzed the pros and cons of OCT scan and showed great interest and support in our project. Although due to changes in our plan, it is unlikely that we will make use of OCT scan, we still appreciate Dr. Kuo a lot for her support.
CRISPR
Recently, CRISPR has appeared as a new technology for gene editing. Although it is powerful, the cost is also enormous. We wonder if CRISPR would be a useful tool in constructing a cell model for the selection of androgenetic alopecia drugs, which is our project direction. Hence, we invited professor Tsai-Yu Tzeng from National Yang-Ming University VYM Genome Research Center to discuss with us the techniques required for constructing the model. Professor Tzeng patiently explained the pros and cons of various techniques on gene editing, including CRISPR, virus infection, and others, enabling us to think further about what technique fits our need the best. “what you need is the fittest technology, not the hottest!” professor Tzeng reminded us.
We are thankful for professor Tzeng’s advices. They will help us make better decisions between economic concerns and technologies.