Lin, Jing-jer

Biography

B.S. 1983, National Taiwan University, Department of Chemistry M.S. 1985, National Yang-Ming Medical College, Institute of Biochemistry Ph.D. 1992, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Research Interest

Telomeres are the physical ends of eukaryotic linear chromosomes. They are important for the maintenance of chromosome integrity. One of the main goals of my research is to understand the structure and function of telomeres. Using budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism, the function of a telomere binding protein, Cdc13p, was analyzed. The role of several proteins including yeast Ku protein, Gbp2p, Rlr1p, and Imp4p in mediating telomere length maintenance are also our research interests. Since telomerase activity is implicated as an essential step for tumor formation in human, my laboratory is also interested in identifying agents that inhibit telomerase activity. Moreover, we are also interested in analyzing the genes that are involved in senescence. Among them, we are currently focused on determining the role of the pituitary tumor transforming gene (PTTG1) in senescence. In addition to telomere-related researches, we are also interested in applying chemical approach to address biological questions. A series of mechanism-based chemical probes for labeling selected protein families including protein tyrosine phosphatases, protein kinases, and serine proteases were designed and synthesized. We are interested in developing these chemical probes as technical platforms for