Chi-Huey Wong

Scripps Family Chair Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute
Distinguished Research Fellow, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica
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Dr. Wong has been a professor of chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute since 1989. He is currently the Scripps Family Chair Professor of Chemistry with a joint appointment as Distinguished Research Fellow at Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica.  He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in biochemical sciences from National Taiwan University, Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT (1982) and postdoctoral training at Harvard University.  His current research interest is to develop new methods and tools for making and studying complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins, especially those associated with human diseases. He has trained more than 500 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, published over 780 papers, received more than 130 patents, and is a highly cited scientist with H-index 160. 

Dr. Wong served as Head of the Frontier Research Program on Glycotechnology, RIKEN, Japan (1991-1999), a board member of the US National Research Council (2000-2003), a scientific advisor of Max-Planck Institute, Germany (2000-2008), President of Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2006-2016), a member of RIKEN Council, Japan (2010-16), the Chief Science Advisor to the Taiwan government (2006-2015). Currently, he served as President of IBMI (Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry) and a member of the Science and Technology Advisory Board of Executive Yuan, Taiwan.  
Dr. Wong received numerous honors for recognition of his accomplishments, including, the US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the American Chemical Society AC Cope Medal, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry, and the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry. He is a member of Academia Sinica, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, US National Academy of Sciences, EMBO, and US National Academy of Inventors, and is a laureate of Industrial Technology and Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan.

 

 

Speech title & Synopsis

Decoding the Secret Life of Carbohydrates 

Due to an increasing aging population, global healthcare spending will increase from the current 12 trillion to 15 trillion US dollars in 2030, with early diagnosis and preventive medicine accounting for 35% of the spending. This means that the biotech development will expand from disease treatment to precision healthcare and thus will meet new challenges and opportunities. In addition, AI-assisted approach to big data analysis, drug discovery and clinical development will make precision healthcare more cost-effective and accurate. Carbohydrates are vitally important in life and involved in numerous biological functions, ranging from stem cell differentiation, egg-sperm interaction, blood type determination, to viral infection, cancer metastasis, et al. Most proteins after glycosylation move to the surface of cells to play their critical roles in the staggeringly complex symphony of cellular communications. However, the role of carbohydrates on glycoproteins has not been well understood, mainly due to the lack of tools and methods available for the study of this class of molecules. This lecture will focus on our recent efforts in decoding the secret life of carbohydrates in diseases and the development of carbohydrate-based medicines, including universal low-sugar vaccines and glyco-optimized antibodies with improved Fc-mediated killing.

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