抄録
Taiwan’s National Science Council (NSC) is in charge of the funding policy of all basic scientific researches in Taiwan. Department of Life Science in NSC has three missions: first, to promote and support the life science research; secondly, to establish the infrastructure of life science area in Taiwan; third, to cultivate the personnel and talent for life science and biotechnology. Parts of my presentation will be introducing the funding policy as well as the trends of pharmacological/toxicological research in Taiwan.
In addition, I will also present my own research on cancer stem cell. Our recent study revealed that the histone methyltransferase G9a played a crucial role in maintaining typical characteristics of cancer stem cells such as drug resistance, self-renewal and tumorigenicity. Interestingly, some reports had been shown that the level of G9a could be up-regulated or altered by some toxicants or heavy metals. Therefore we would like to discuss the possibility of where some toxicants exposure might nurture the emergence of cancer stem cells by changing the epigenetic regulators, i.e., G9a.
