Science

Science

Science

Tsai, Yu-Hsuan

Unite as one to overcome difficulties.

Tsai, Yu-Hsuan

蔡羽轩

Institute of Molecular Physiology

Junior Principal Investigator

tsai@szbl.ac.cn

Home page of research group:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0589-5088

Timeline

  • 2020- Present

    Shenzhen Bay Laboratory         Junior Principal Investigator

  • 2015 - 2020

    Cardiff University         Principle Investigator

  • 2012 - 2014

    MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology         Postdoctoral Researcher

  • 2009 - 2012

    Freie Universität Berlin         Doctor of Natural Science

  • 2007 - 2008

    Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich         Master of Science

  • 2006 - 2007

    Academia Sinica         Research Assistant

  • 2003 - 2006

    National Taiwan University         Bachelor of Science









Research Areas


Our research focuses on development of new chemical biology tools that address challenging biological questions. We are particularly interested in developing new tools to control protein function and their biomedical applications, such as therapeutics and diagnostics. The group has expertise in chemical biology, organic synthesis, therapeutic development, gene editing, and genetic code expansion.

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Highlights


Yu-Hsuan Tsai did undergraduate study at the National Taiwan University and obtained his BSc with Honors in 2006. He then worked as a research assistant on isolation, characterization, and synthesis of bacterial glycoconjugates in the group of Shih-Hsiung Wu in the Institute of Biological Chemistry at the Academia Sinica. He later joined the group of Peter Seeberger at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in 2007 and moved with the group to Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in 2009. During this time, he worked on different aspects of carbohydrate research, including carbohydrate dendrimers, carbohydrate-antibody interactions, synthetic inositol phosphoglycans as insulin mimetics and total synthesis of glycosylphophatidylinositol anchors. In 2012 he joined the group of Jason Chin at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology working on genetic code expansion and its applications in mammalian cells.

In 2015, Dr Tsai established his independent research group in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University. He has secured over £2.4 million research funding. To date, he has published 26 peer-reviewed papers (13 as an independent researcher), including articles in Nat. Chem., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. and Chem. Sci. Published works from his lab have been reported as feature news by various agents, such as Science, The Conversation, etc. He is also a co-inventor of two patents and a recipient of different distinctions, such as Cardiff Futures (2019), British Science Association Media Fellow (2018), GW4 Crucible (2017), EMBO Fellow (2014), MCR Career Development Fellow (2012). He has also been an Academic Editor of PLOS ONE since 2020.






Honors


  • • 2001, Dow Chemical Award

  • • 2001, Chinese Chemical Society Award

  • • 2006, National Taiwan University Dean of Science Award

  • • 2007, ETH Zurich Scholarship

  • • 2008, Novartis Master Fellowship

  • • 2009, DAAD Scholarship

  • • 2011, European Science Foundation Student Grant

  • • 2012, Max Planck Institute Scholarship

  • • 2012, MRC Career Development Fellowship

  • • 2013, EMBO Long-Term Fellowship

  • • 2017, GW4 Crucible

  • • 2018, British Science Association Media Fellowship

  • • 2019, Cardiff Futures






Related News


https://www.sciencemag.org/features/2018/11/protein-expression-revisited

https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/web/2015/05/New-Approach-Control-Enzyme-Function.html

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acschembio.5b00413






Selected Publications


1. Y.-H. Tsai*, T. Doura, S. Kiyonaka, Tethering-based chemogenetic approaches for the modulation of protein function in live cells. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 7909.

2. A. R. Nödling, E. M. Mills, X. Li, D. Cardella, E. J. Sayers, S.-H. Wu, A. T. Jones, L. Y. P. Luk, Y.-H. Tsai*, Cyanine dye mediated mitochondrial targeting enhances the anti-cancer activity of small-molecule cargoes. Chem. Commun. 202056, 4672.

3. J.-H. Liao, C.-H. Tsai, S. G. Patel, J.-T. Yang, I-F. Tu, M. Lo Cicero, M. Lipka-Lloyd, W.-L. Wu, W.-J. Shen, M.-R. Ho, C.-C. Chou, G. R. Sharma, H. Okanishi, L. Y. P. Luk, Y.-H. Tsai*, S.-H. Wu*Acetylome of Acinetobacter baumannii SK17 reveals a highly-conserved modification of histone-like protein HU. Front. Mol. Biosci. 20174, 77.

4. Y. -H. Tsai, S. Essig, J. R. James, K. Lang, J. W. Chin*, Selective, rapid and optically switchable regulation of protein function in live mammalian cells. Nat. Chem. 20157, 554.

5. X. Zheng, Z. Li, W. Gao, X. Meng, X. Li, L. Y. P. Luk, Y. Zhao, Y.-H. Tsai*, C. Wu*, Condensation of 2-((alkylthio)(aryl)methylene)malononitrile with 1,2-aminothiol as a novel bioorthogonal reaction for site-specific protein modification and peptide cyclization. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020142, 5097.