Prof. Hsiang-Chun Lee, MD, MSc, PhD; FAHA, FESC

Professor of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU), Taiwan

Cardiologist, Cardiovascular Center, KMU Hospital 

Chief, Department of Internal Medicine, KMU Gangshan Hospital

Director, Lipid Science and Aging Research Center (LSARC), KMU

Dr. Lee completed her medical doctor and cardiologist training at Kaohsiung Medical University. Dr. Lee has been devoted to cardiac arrhythmia research since 2008 when she started her PhD study. From 2010 to 2013, she studied in the Biomedical Engineering Department, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA, where she accomplished her first National Science Council Project through international collaboration with two distinguished professors, Dr. Yoram Rudy and Dr. Jianmin Cui. Her work incorporated computational modeling and patch clamp experiments to elucidate the effects of alternative splicing of KCNQ1 on ventricular arrhythmogenicity (Heart Rhythm 2013). 

In early 2014, Dr. Lee established her lab and started lipid research, which found novel findings that very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) of metabolic syndrome induces excessive lipid accumulation, cardiac lipotoxicity, atrial cardiomyopathy with conduction delay (Scientific Reports 2017), calcium dysregulation and myofilament derangement (J Clin Med 2019), and ultimately, vulnerability to atrial fibrillation (Int J Mol Sci 2016). In 2020, she was the first to articulate the role of postprandial VLDL in atrial remodeling in human subjects with metabolic syndrome (Lipids Health Dis 2020). Subsequently, her team identified cardiotoxic lipids that induce atrial myopathy using lipidomes (Scientific Reports 2023). Dr. Lee’s research is also aimed at the effects of a high-fat diet on hypertensive heart diseases and pharmaceutical benefit on intra-cardiac fibrosis (J Formosan Med Assoc 2017, Cardiovasc Diabetol 2019, and Europace 2023). 

Dr. Lee’s research pursued a better prevention of atrial arrhythmias. Since 2019 with collaboration with colleagues at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), ATR-FTIR spectroscopy has been developed to be a reagent-free, timely assay for determining cardiotoxic lipids in very small volume sample of 0.5 microlitre serum or plasma (PLOS ONE 2024). Since 2022, machine learning has made it possible to determine dynamic P-wave changes during exercise electrocardiography testing and tennis tournaments to identify early atrial myopathy in the general population and athletes (Computers in Biol and Med 2022). 

She is currently the principal investigator for research projects funded by the Taiwan government’s grants (Ministry of Science and Technology and NSRRC), and as such, her studies on different stages of atrial arrhythmias continue to further elaborate the alliance of lipotoxicity to atrial cardiomyopathy, which she proposes as the prelude for atrial fibrillation in the metabolic syndrome (Int J Mol Sci 2020, Front Cardiovasc Med 2022). 

The purpose of the establishment of the center is to 『establish excellent research in lipid and glycology, explore the pathogenesis of lipid and glucose abnormalities related diseases, develop new methods for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of lipid and glucose abnormalities related diseases, and promote the health of the Chinese people. Aging and quality of life. 』

We are committed to research on how lipid abnormalities lead to various organ and tissue damage, dysfunction, role in pathogenesis, accelerated aging, etc., while enhancing the amount of research and teaching.

The tasks of the center are as follows:

1. To study the effects and related mechanisms of liposomes and lipid metabolism at the cellular and molecular level.

2. To study the effects and related mechanisms of liposomes and lipid metabolism in aging.

3. Construction and maintenance of research platforms, innovative application of technological inventions and research and development of therapeutic targets.

4. Translational medicine research related to lipid metabolism.

5. Translational medical research related to aging.