Dr. Chun-Hong Chen joined the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) in 2009. From 2009 to 2017, he worked as part of the Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine (IMGM). Following the serious Dengue outbreaks of 2014 and 2015, the NHRI established a new research center (the National mosquito borne disease prevention and research center) in 2016, with Dr Chen taking a leading role in this process. Dr Chen joined the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at this time. He is also assigned as the Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of mosquito control and novel intervention development in Southern Taiwan, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Tropical Disease Control and Research Center (preparatory office) at the National Health Research Institutes. In addition to his applied work, Dr. Chen is a pioneering researcher in fundamental biology. His work into gene drive systems led to the development of a synthetic Medea gene drive in Drosophila melanogaster, which relies on an ingenious use of miRNA-mediated gene silencing coupled with a rescue mechanism. Based on this achievement, he won the Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Award from American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2011. His group at the NHRI is carrying out studies in transgenic D. melanogaster and Aedes aegypti lines using miRNA-based RNAi interference and CRISPR/Cas9 platforms.
His recent work has focused on engineering miRNA-based disease-refractoriness to prevent the transmission of Dengue and Zika viruses by Aedes mosquitoes. He has recently developed circadian rhythm Aedes mutants to try to investigate the well-reported but poorly understood links between the circadian clock and important host seeking behaviors such as swarming and host seeking. Finally, he has generated new mutants for the study of Dengue pathogenesis mechanisms.
Furthermore, as part of the IMGM, Dr Chen works on a novel mitochondrial transportation system which is involved in mitochondrial dynamics and age-related diseases. He uses Drosophila models of rare genetic diseases, including Maple Urine Syndrome Disease, to investigate the fundamental mechanisms underlying these illnesses and to test potential therapeutic interventions. His research therefore covers both mosquito-borne and age-related diseases
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3028-5508
(1) Li HH, Su MP, Wu SC, Tsou HH, Chang MC, Cheng YC, Tsai KN, Wang HW, Chen GH, Tang CK, Chung PJ, Tsai WT, Huang LR, Yueh YA, Chen HW, Pan CY, Akbari OS, Chang HH, Yu GY, Marshall JM, Chen CH Mechanical transmission of dengue virus by Aedes aegypti may influence disease transmission dynamics during outbreaks. .EBioMedicine. 2023 Aug;94:104723. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104723.
(2) Wang HW, Li HH, Wu SC, Tang CK, Yu HY, Chang YC, Sung PS, Liu WL, Su MP, Yu GY, Huang LR, Chen CH, Hsieh SL. CLEC5A mediates Zika virus-induced testicular damage. J Biomed Sci. 2023 Feb 17;30(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s12929-023-00906-6.
(3) Chen YX, Pan CY, Chen BY, Jeng SW, Chen CH, Huang JJ, Chen CD, Liu WL Use of unmanned ground vehicle systems in urbanized zones: A study of vector Mosquito surveillance in Kaohsiung..PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2023 Jun 8;17(6):e0011346. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011346.
(4) Liu WL, Wang Y, Chen YX, Chen BY, Lin AY, Dai ST, Chen CH, Liao LD. An IoT-based smart mosquito trap system embedded with real-time mosquito image processing by neural networks for mosquito surveillance. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Jan 20;11:1100968. doi: 1
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| The circadian clock strongly influences Ae. aegypti behavior and activity. However, the clock is composed of several distinct components, each with its own function. In this study, we generated individual gene knockout mutants for the four core components of the Ae. aegypti clock: period, timeless, clock, and cycle genes. We confirmed the gene knockout by sequencing and then examined the loss of rhythmic gene expression using qPCR at multiple circadian time points. Simultaneously, we observed that each Circadian protein underwent modifications at different times in the mutant strains. Additionally, we conducted various assays to assess the impact of gene knockout on the behavior of Ae. aegypti. Each mutant strain demonstrated partially distinct phenotypes. Notably, our analyses of the host seeking assay revealed significant changes in both the timing and rhythmicity of host seeking behavior for each mutant line. These findings demonstrate that individual core components of the circadian clock play a significant role in regulating the timing and extent of female Ae. aegypti's host seeking behaviour. |