Endosymbiotic Origin & Host-Microbe Interactions

[2022/11/12] John Innes Centre @ Norwich, UK

The group advisor Shih-Hsun Walter Hung (洪世勳) visited the John Innes Centre and learned fantastic plant-microbe-insect interactions from Dr Saskia Hogenhout. So pleased to be hosted such kindly! We also had a great dinner last night. It's definitely where you would like to stay and research

[2022/10/26-28] 2022 iGEM Competition @ Paris, France

Congrats to our group advisor Shih-Hsun Walter Hung (洪世勳) on completing his first-time Judge work in the iGEM Competition; Walter and Neal, as instructors, won a Silver Medal with the team NCHU_Taichung this year! Impressed by many exciting projects this year in Paris. Special thanks to all session partners and Taiwanese judges!

[2022/10/06] Tree Project @ Alishan, Chiayi

It's exciting every time you go back to Alishan to check out our little trees! It's glad to have Oscar, Vic, Kyle and Neal in this project and work with them all together.

[2022/09/08] Travel Grant Competition for Young Scholars @ AS-IPMB, Taipei

Just finished a presentation in AS-IPMB! We gave out an Endophytic Biostimulants approach for future agriculture to solve #36 of the 100 Plant Science Questions!

[2022/08/30] Badminton Time @ Taichung

Nice badminton time with Kuo Lab members, Hsin-Ying & Grace, this week. Looking forward to seeing you again!

[2022/08/22] Taiwan iGEM Meet '22 Conference @ NCKU, Tainan

Live long and prosper! It's great to meet and share our project with both old and new iGEMers. Eugene and Sabrina are the grand prize winners of the 2019 iGEM competition. They established a platform called Taiwan Synbio Alliance for Taiwanese synthetic biology enthusiasts and held the Taiwan iGEM Meet '22 Conference at NCKU, Tainan. This year Sabrina also served as an iGEM Ambassador for Asia and Oceania. Looking forward to seeing you, my judge partners, in Paris, France!

[2022/08/10] Lunchtime @ Taipei

Lovely lunchtime with Eugene Huang and Hsiao-Chun Johnny Chen! Johnny is pursuing his doctoral study in the USA; he returned to Taiwan for a short break. We won a gold medal at iGEM 2018 together as team members of NCHU_Taichung.

[2022/08/06] NCHU-Hort USR Project @ NCHU, Taichung

We attended the 2022 NCHU Dept Horticulture's University Social Responsibility (USR) project, held by Dr Chen-Fa Wu (the Dept chair when I studied at NCHU-Hort). This horticultural therapy area was set up for older people. Pleasing to see our little plants involved in this integrated human practice action! with Jim, Youzi, Nick and Dylan

[2022/07/07] Tree Project @ Alishan, Chiayi

Three months later~ We go back to track the growth of Taiwania cryptomerioides and tea. This time we have Victor and Kyle as new members of the tree & tea project in Alishan. Special thanks to our collaborator Oscar, and farewell to Eric, wishing him the best for his MS study in National Taiwan University!

[2022/07/06] Celebration Party @ Hotel National, Taichung

Congratulations to Dr Chieh-Chen Huang (黃介辰) on being elected as the new Dean of NCHU College of Life Sciences! We gather together and have a lunch party to celebrate it. Let's make a toast to our PI!

[2022/06/23] Workshop @ AS-IPMB, Taipei

Take a quick break and join the special workshop my PI Dr Chih-Horng Kuo (郭志鴻) held, which was quite informative and helpful. It also feels good to see and have weekly badminton time with Kuo Lab's members! Welcome Dr Hanna Chepyshko to join Kuo Lab as a visiting scholar via the Taiwan Scholarship for Ukrainian Scholars.

[2022/05/25-06/02] Underwater and Overground Investigation @ Lanyu, Taitung

How fascinating the underwater world is! This time I spent about one week on this beautiful island and performed endophytic sample collections for our MPEI and Marine projects. It's also my first time trying freediving; special thanks to my instructor Fu TY and diving buddy Shirley Chu. Cannot wait to visit Lanyu again!

[2022/05/19] In-Field Investigation @ Gaomei Wetland, Taichung

It aims to photograph the high-tide and low-tide switches within wetland habitats. We arrived at about dawn and left at sunset, which was quite exhausting! Thanks to the experts, Madeline and Victor, for helping with this!

[2022/04/25-26] Tree Project @ Alishan, Chiayi

It's time for transplantation! Over one year, seedlings of Taiwania cryptomerioides are now going to grow in their typical niche in Alishan. It does be a time-consuming but exciting project... with Eric Huang

[2022/04/06-09] Underwater Investigation @ Liuqiu, Pingtung

Finally, we restarted our underwater investigation in Liuqiu for the Marine Microbiology project after a pause caused by COVID-19 Pandemics! Super thanks to Yin-Ju for her underwater security and guide. Great to dived with Stefan, and had a little trip with Emilia during that days!

[2022/03/09] Photo with HEREYEE BioTech @ Taichung

Congrats to Huang Lab partners on their successful startup HEREYEE BioTech, which focuses on multifunctional symbiotic microorganisms' benefits to shrimps. Group photo with UE Yu-Chih Lai (chairman), Yu-Lin and Zyan (senior engineers).

[2022/03/11] Annual Party @ Cheese Private Chefs, Taichung

Our team members were gathering together and had a party to celebrate the start of the new year!

[2022/03/08] Badminton Time @ Taichung

We've started our team weekly badminton time for near three months. So glad that every team member attended and enjoyed this!

[2022/02/26] Exhibitions: Gaia.: Gene, algorithm, intelligent design, automata_A mirage self, The Other Realm @ MoCA Taipei

[2022/02/25] Endophytic Bacteria Deposit @ BCRC

Bioresource Collection and Research Center (BCRC) is an internationally recognized microorganism culture collection affiliated with the Food Industry Research and Development Institute (FIRDI) of Taiwan. It's the first time Walter visits BCRC, and he carries the mission of endophytic bacteria deposit.

[2022/02/16] Annual Party @ 鴨片館 Taichung

Huang Lab members were gathering together and had a party to celebrate the start of the new year!

[2022/02/11] Daily Data Collection of Tree Plants @ oak

Our new work on endophytic biostimulants assisted tree plants' (Taiwania cryptomerioides and Chamaecyparis formosensis) growth improvement and wood formation acceleration. Kyle and Neal were helping with daily data collection.

[2022/02/08] Special Report 5227 @ SmileTaiwan Issue of CommonWealth Magazine

This report is focused on one of our main research topics: using endophytic biostimulants for plants' growth promotion, pesticide use reduction and carbon dioxide emission reduction. We have a group photo with Drs Chieh-Chen Huang (黃介辰) and En-Pei Isabel Chiang, and the president of Info-Link Services Co, Ltd Daniel Huarng. [URL

[2022/01/19-20] MiTalk6 @ THU

MiTalk is an annual event that aims to promote microbiology research among young scientists. For the first time attending, Walter, Kyle, and Neal were inspired by diverse research topics and quite enjoyed the activities in these two days!

[2022/01/14] PEM Party @ AS-IPMB

The Plant and Environmental Microbiology (PEM) is a group in AS-IPMB. The joint party was held to celebrate the start of a new year!