I am currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Clinical Microbiology in the Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology in the College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University. In the summer of 2017, I completed my postdoctoral training at the Immunology Research Center, NHRI, and joined the faculty at NCKU. 

At NCKU, I have two primary missions in College of Medicine. The first is to offer the courses of Clinical Microbiology, Clinical Microbiology Lab., and Clinical Microbiology Practice for undergraduate students and Human Microbiome for graduate students. The second is to help NCKU Hospital (NCKUH) establish the workflow of using metagenomic sequencing (mNGS) in pathogen identification and antibiotic-resistance prediction. As a young and junior faculty, I endeavor to balance my teaching, research, and service commitments, which are 45% teaching, 45% research, and 10% service. 

My lab primarily focuses on inflammatory gut diseases and metabolic disorders to the environment-host-microbiome interaction. I am interested in understanding how a host keeps gut microbiota on a leash. Although a microbiota usually changes constantly, the dynamic balance between microbes will be critical for maintaining host healthy conditions. However, how different human mucosal layers regulate the plasticity of microbial communities remains underexplored. We use sequence-based approaches (16S amplicon, metagenomics, genomics, and transcriptomics) in combination with mouse models to understand the role of host regulation (e.g., innate immunity, bile acids) in maintaining microbiome homeostasis.