Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

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Personalized studies in immune-mediated diseases and immunotherapies have been sparse and limited to older biomarker-screening studies focused mainly on bulk omics strategy. Without a clear understanding of the roles of heterogenous circulating immune cells and its associations for phenotypes, we are at a loss for identifying precise bio-signatures for clinical applications. To leverage single-cell analysis for translational studies in immune-mediated diseases and immunotherapies, we focus on collecting single-cell features from multiple cohorts and sophisticated human disease experimental models through multiple high-throughput single-cell platforms and multi-modal analysis for these single-cell datasets. In addition, we are developing platforms for understanding the functional characteristics of selected cell subpopulations. This presentation will share previous findings, recent progress, and our strategies in investigating disease-related markers and single-cell features in human diseases.

Dr. Tai-Ming Ko’s long-term research interests are in translational research, and he aims at translating the promise of genomic medicine into clinical reality. He is an assistant professor of Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), a Joint Assistant Professor, Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), and a Joint Appointment Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), Academia Sinica. He received B.S. and Ph.D. degree in National Taiwan University. Dr. Ko joined NCTU after conducting postdoctoral research at the IBMS of Academia Sinica and at the University of Chicago. He has received some awards including Distinguished Postdoctoral Scholarship, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2014-2015), Tsung-Ming Tu’s YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD, The Pharmacological Society in Taiwan, Taiwan (2018), YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD, The 12th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium, Japan (2018), Bio-ICT(Information and Communications Technology) Junior Chair Professor, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (2018-2022), JCA-CHAAO Award (Category: Cancer research using artificial intelligence technologies on the frontiers of medical science), Japanese Cancer Association, Japan (2019), selected member of the Clinical Translational Research Network (CTRN), 10x Genomics, USA (2021).

Currently, his lab at NYCU and IBMS (Academia Sinica) have early access to the newest single-cell multi-omics technologies (scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq, scDNA-seq, CITE-seq, scVDJ-seq, spatial profiling, and other advanced single-cell platforms) to better understand specific genomic factors or disease mediators involved infectious diseases, hypersensitivities, and cancer immunotherapies at the single-cell level, especially for the roles and applications of immune receptor repertoire (i.e. HLA, TCR, KIR). In addition, he also has collaborations in the fields of population health and molecular epidemiology.