Research Interests
Endocrine Cell Biology
The Endocrinology laboratory focuses on the link of cell biological properties and functions. Functions of cells may be the secretion of hormones in endocrine cells, contraction and dilation of cardiomyocytes, or proliferation and apoptosis of cancer cells. We concentrate on hormones, which are important in controlling growth, development, metabolic balance, body mass composition, ageing process, and the plasma glucose levels, such as growth hormone, leptin, orexin, insulin, glucagon, and adipocyte-derived hormones and factors. Several endogenous and synthetic regulatory peptides have been tested for their regulatory roles in pituitary and pancreatic islet endocrine cells on the membrane ion channel kinetics, exocytosis / endocytosis, key molecule expression and synthesis, and receptor expression. The long-term goal of these researches is to find effective way to therapeutically correct growth hormone and insulin deficiency in treating obesity and diabetes. In addition, possible paracrine or autocrine effect of a newly discovered hormone, Ghrelin, in the regulation of uterine endometrial cancer development, is under the investigation in this laboratory. We also investigate the function of cardiomyocytes in chronic heart failure, atrial fibrillation, ischemic cardiomyopathy and diabetic cardiomyopathy. The laboratory is using cutting edge techniques in single cell research, including patch clamping, single cell exocytosis measurement, cell image analysis, single cell shortening (contraction), and super-sensitive hormone assay methods. Modern molecular biology techniques are also employed in the laboratory for different projects, including GFP-transgenic mouse, shRNA-gene knock down using virus transfection, and real-time PCR.