Results to be anticipated
- New medical techniques for allergic and immunological diseases. We aim to become a leading center of cell therapy and gene therapy for allergic diseases in Asia, with the participation of physicians or scientists who are interested in this field. The international societies think highly of our research contribution at present. We can enhance local research by the influence of NTUH Allergy and Immunology Center. Our technique and equipment can support other related research teams, such as stem cell or cancer gene therapy.
- Development of new drugs for allergic diseases. We believe that we can explore at least two drugs for asthma treatment in patients in the next two to five years. This will bring great economical and substantial benefit to NTUH and future industry-university cooperation with pharmaceuticals. We have participated in the drug screening in the national biological pharmaceutical programs, several potential drugs have been found and the animal study has been underway. Once the therapeutic effect was well proved in the animal study, we can further evaluate the toxicity of the drugs and prepare for the clinical trials.
- Research on pathogenesis and regulatory mechanisms of allergic diseases. The scientists have even higher interest in the regulatory mechanisms of allergic diseases in recent years, because once the mystery of the regulatory T cells being solved, we can apply to the treatment of allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation.
What we have done?
- Gene therapy for allergic diseases. We have much progress and results on the development of cytokine gene, cell-based and peptide therapy for allergic and immunological diseases in the past few years, including：
- Cytokine genes therapy of IL-10, IL-12, IL-18, or TGF-β. Our study results were published on excellent international journals.
- Dendritic cell-based cell therapy in cancer treatment and allergic diseases.
- Transgenic plants expressing allergen for treatment of allergic diseases by inducing oral tolerance.
- Peptide therapy and anti-angiogenesis therapy in SLE treatment
- We are one of the leading research team worldwide in the research of autoantibodies, pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of Henoch-Schonlein purpura.
Cooperation programs with foreign countries
Our outstanding performance on clinical work and research drew many fellows from different hospital to join our team (6-8 fellows each year). Meanwhile, we cooperate with Prof. Leung of University of California, Davis, USA; Prof. Chu of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prof. Vassilev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; and Prof. Horiuchi of Kyushu University, Japan. After the establishment of NTUH Allergy Center, we strongly believe that more and more physicians and scientists are willing to join our team and work in the field of clinical or basic research.