Director
Ming–Tsang Wu, MD, ScD, MOH
Kaohsiung Medical University
Professor, Department of Public Health
Director, Research Center for Environmental Medicine
Director, Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine
Director of PhD Program in Environmental and Occupational Medicine
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital
Chairman, Department of Community Medicine
Attending Physician, Department of Family Medicine
EDUCATION
| DATE | DEGREE | INSTITUTION |
| 1987 | M.D. | Chung Shan Medical University |
| 1992 | M.O.H | Harvard University |
| 1997 | Sc.D. | Harvard University |
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Community Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Molecular Epidemiology, Environmental Health & Occupational Medicine
RESEARCH ABSTRACT
My major research interest is on the interactive effects of environmental and occupational exposures, genetic factors, and biomarkers on the health outcomes. Recently, I am also actively involving in the translational studies, since I am a clinical physician as well as a researcher. The missions of my research unit are 1) to identify functionally important gene markers that may be involved in the development and prognosis of diseases (e.g., esophageal cancer) by advance techniques such as whole genome array; 2) to study gene-to-environment interactions in disease etiology in clinical and community epidemiology; 3) to apply different biological monitoring markers in the studies of newly-emerging environmental diseases such as melamine exposure and urolithiasis; 4) to supervise the clinical physicians to conduct translational studies as well as the studies of clinical epidemiology; 5) to establish tissue and DNA repositories for molecular epidemiology and community medicine studies in the future (e.g., gastro-endoscopy cohort); 6) to train undergraduate and graduate students for the study of molecular epidemiology and biology in environmental and occupational health.
My laboratory, called Environmental & Occupational Molecular Epidemiology Research Laboratory, occupies ~70 square meters of space on the 9th floor of CS Research Building inside the campus of Kaohsiung Medical University. My laboratory has equipped with one small culture room and has successfully established the independent ability to run PCR for genotyping, to identify the certain hypermehtylation genes, and to detect gene mutations by PCR-SSCP as well as to use the invasion chamber assay to isolate the most malignant esophageal cell lines. Meanwhile, my laboratory is closely to other research laboratory, including Exposure Assessment Research Laboratory, leaded by one of our co-investigators, Dr. Chiung-Yu Peng. Therefore, the state-of-art research facilities and equipments in our research center promise the research successfully.
I have professionally cooperated with many physicians and scientists from National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, and E-Da Hospital and Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH) in Kaohsiung as well as the scientists from National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and Academia Sinica (Dr. Ling-Hui Li, National Genotyping Center, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, for the study of esophageal cancer). I am also actively involving in the international collaborative research projects, including one with Dr. David C. Christiani, Professor in the School of Public Health of Harvard University, in which we study the effect of petrochemical exposures on leukemia and brain neoplasms in young people, and one with Dr. Stephen Hecht, Wallin Land Grant Professor of Cancer Prevention in University of Minnesota, in which we are studying urinary biomarkers of benzo[a]pyrene and pyrene in coke-oven workers. Right now, Prof. Christiani and I start to initiate another research project related with molecular genetics of lung cancer. We attempt to elucidate different profiles of gene mutations of lung cancer between Caucasian and Asia populations. Prof. Hecht and I also start to work on another project, entitled “DNA Adducts of the Carcinogen Acetaldehyde”, which has being granted by US NIH for 5 years. Our major research goal is to investigate the modifying effect of ethanol-metabolizing genes on ethanol-related DNA adducts in leukocytes of humans who are alcohol drinkers.
PUBLICATIONS (*Selected articles)
1.Liu CC (equal contribution), Wu CF (equal contribution), Chen BH, Huang SP, Goggins W, Lee HH, Chou YH, Wu WJ, Huang CH, Shiea J, Lee CH, Wu KY, Wu MT*: Low exposure to melamine increases the risk of urolithiasis in adults. Kidney Int 80(7): 746-52, 2011. (Impact factor: 8.563; Subject categories: UROLOGY & NEPHROLOGY)
2.Wu MT*, Wu CF, Wu JR, Chen BH, Chen EK, Chao MC, Liu CK, Ho CK*: The public health threat of phthalate-tainted foodstuffs in Taiwan: the policies the government implemented and the lessons we learned. Environ Int 44: 75-79, September 2012. (2016 IF: 7.088; Ranking/Field:7/229; Field:ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES - SCIE; Citations:38).
3.Wu CF, Hsieh TJ, Chen BH, Liu CC, Wu MT*: A crossover study of noodle soup consumption in melamine bowls and total melamine excretion in urine. JAMA Intern Med. 2013 Feb 25; 173(4):317-9.
4.Wu CF, Chen BH, Shiea J, Chen EK, Liu CK, Chao MC, Ho CK, Wu JR, Wu MT*: Temporal changes of urinary oxidative metabolites of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate after the 2011 phthalate incident in Taiwanese children-Findings of a 6-month follow-up. Environ Sci Technol. 47(23):13754-62, 2013.
5.Wu CF, Peng CY, Liu CC, Lin WY, Pan CH, Cheng CM, Hsieh HM, Hsieh TJ, Chen BH, Wu MT*. Ambient melamine exposure and urinary biomarkers of early renal injury. J Am Soc Nephrol 2015 Nov;26(11):2821-9.
6.Tsai HJ, Chen BH (co-first author), Wu CF, Wang SL, Huang PC, Tsai YC, Chen ML, Ho CK, Hsiung CA*, Wu MT*: Intake of phthalate-tainted foods and microalbuminuria in children:the 2011 Taiwan food scandal. Environ Int 2016 Apr-May;89-90:129-37.
7.Chen HM, Wu MT*: Residential exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons from groundwater contamination and the impairment of renal function-An ecological study. Sci Reports. 2017 Jan 9;7:40283. doi: 10.1038/srep40283.
8.Lin PID, Wu CF, Kou HS, Huang TY, Shiea J, Wu MT*: Soap and the removal of di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate from hands: N-of-1 and Crossover Designs. Sci Reports 2017 Mar 28;7(1):454. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00581-2 (Erratum: Removal of Diethylhexyl Phthalate from Hands by Handwashing: Evidence from Experimental N-of-1 and Crossover Designs Sci Reports 7: 6432 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-04860-w).
9.Liu CC, Hsieh TJ, Wu CF, Tsai YC, Huang SP, Lee YC, Huang TY, Shen JT, Cou YH, Huang CN, Wu WJ, Wu MT*. Urinary melamine excretion and increased markers of renal tubular injury in patients with calcium urolithiasis: A cross-sectional study. Environ Pollution 231: 1284-1290, 2017.
10. Wu CF, Hsiung CA, Tsai HJ, Tsai YC, Hsieh HM, Chen BH, Wu MT*: Interaction of melamine and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate exposure on markers of early renal damage in children: The 2011 Taiwan food scandal. Environ Pollution 235: 453-461, 2018.
| File | File size | Last modified |
|---|---|---|
 CV_Jan_2018.pdf | 667 kB | 2018-01-24 |
