Lin, Yi-Ling - IBMS, Sinica

Dr. Lin, Yi-Ling

Distinguished Research Fellow

Division Chief

02-2789-9013 (Lab) (Room No: 443)
02-2652-3902
02-2785-8847 (Fax)

Specialty:

Molecular Virology
Viral Pathogenesis
Viral Immunology

Education and Positions:

1992/12, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

2014/7-2018/9, Deputy Director, IBMS, AS, Taipei, Taiwan

2020/9-2024/8, CEO, Emerging Infectious Disease Division (EIDD), Biomedical Translation Research Center (BioTReC), AS, Taipei, Taiwan

Our laboratory centers on three important emerging/reemerging flaviviruses, namely Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV). JEV is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes and causes acute encephalitis with high fatality rates. DENV generally causes a mild febrile illness called dengue fever and infrequently much more severe diseases, such as dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. ZIKV infection displays nonspecific clinical features and generally causes mild symptoms in humans. However, the recent ZIKV outbreak in Brazil has created a public health emergency of international concern. Although case fatality of ZIKV is low, maternal infection during pregnancy has been linked to congenital microcephaly. The flavivirus genome is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA, which contains a single open reading frame encoding a polyprotein. In the infected cells this polyprotein is proteolytically cleaved into at least 11 viral structural and nonstructural proteins. Research interests in this laboratory are the molecular biology, virology, and pathogenesis mechanisms of these viruses. Our overall goal is to understand the multifaceted virus-host interactions in JEV, DENV and ZIKV infection.

There have been several dengue endemics in southern Taiwan in these years. Plus the 2003 SARS and 2015-2016 ZIKV outbreaks, these living lessons have prompted us not only to focus on basic virology research, but also to think deeply about how to deal with emerging viral infections. As a lab working on viral research, we understand the threat of an emerging infectious disease and the importance of rapid response. How can we act quickly when an epidemic occurs and do something to help the control of an outbreak have become important issues in our mindset. In respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, Academia Sinica formed a task force on Jan 28, 2020 and Dr. Yi-Ling Lin has been the coordinator of the task force. Dr. Lin is in charge of the P3 facility in IBMS and also the CEO of the newly established “Emerging Infectious Disease Division (EIDD)” in Biomedical Translation Research Center (BioTReC) located in the National Biotechnology Research Park, Nangang, Taipei. Thus, besides working on flaviviruses, our lab has also being working on SARS-CoV-2 since 2020. We have established reagents and assay systems to serve the urgent needs of testing research materials developed to fight against COVID-19.

Overall, we have chances to work with researchers inside and outside Academia Sinica, as well as commercial drug/vaccine developers on this newly emerging SARS-CoV-2. Through these practices, we got familiar with this brand-new virus and gained precious experiences of working on this emerging pathogen. We would like to further study this devastating virus and to provide more needed service for our research and industrial communities in order to develop useful detection kits, antiviral drugs and vaccines to control this global pandemic.