Dr. Tang, Tang K. 's publons link picture

Dr. Tang, Tang K.

Vice President, Academia Sinica
Distinguished Research Fellow
Academician, Academia Sinica
  • 02-27899156(lab) (Lab) (Room No: 301)
  • 02-26523901(o)
  • 02-27829143 (Fax)

Specialty:
  • Centrosome and Cilia Biogenesis
  • Mitosis
  • Neural Stem Cell Division

Education and Positions:
  • Ph.D. Human Genetics, Yale University


Centrioles/Centrosomes, Cilia, Neural Stem Cells, and Tumorigenesis

Centrioles are essential components of the centrosomes, which are required for the formation of the mitotic spindles, cilia, and flagella. Centriole duplication involves the growth of a procentriole (daughter centriole) from an existing centriole (mother centriole). Primary microcephaly (MCPH) is characterized by a substantial reduction in size of the cerebral cortex with mild to severe mental retardation. Recently, mutations in many centriolar genes have been reported to cause MCPH and ciliopathies, but their underlining mechanisms remain incompletely understood. During the past years, my lab has identified several key proteins that participate in centriole duplication and cilia formation. We found that CPAP cooperates with CEP120 to regulate centriole length (Nat Cell Biol. 2009; J Cell Biol 2013; Sci Rep 2019). We further demonstrated that CPAP and STIL could interact with each other (EMBO J, 2011) and form complexes with CEP135 (EMBO J, 2013), CEP120 (J Cell Biol, 2013), and RTTN (Nat Commun, 2017), and such interactions are critical to build a full-length centriole. Interestingly, mutations in CPAP, STIL, CEP135, and RTTN genes cause primary microcephaly, and complete loss of CPAP produces severe and neurological phenotypes in developing mouse brain (J Cell Sci, 2020). Our findings support a concept that defect in centriole biogenesis is one of main causes for MCPH. In addition, we also found that Myosin-Va mediates the initial transportation of preciliary vesicles to the mother centriole, that defines the onset of ciliogenesis (Nat Cell Biol 2018). Recent reports showed that uncontrolled centriole/centrosome replication might lead to unrestrained proliferation and chromosome instability in cancers. We will use a combination of molecular and cellular, genetic, animal model, and hiPSC-derived organoid approaches to understand how the cellular organelles (centrioles or cilia) are established and how mutations in centriolar genes cause primary microcephaly, ciliopathies, and tumorigenesis in humans.

 

Our Team
Team photo

Journal 60 Book 1

  1. Wang YW, Chen SC, Gu DL, Yeh YC, Tsai JJ, Yang KT, Jou YS, Chou TY, Tang TK* A novel HIF1alpha-STIL-FOXM1 axis regulates tumor metastasis. Journal of biomedical science 29(1), 24 (2022-04) [JCR] [WOS]
  2. An HL, Kuo HC, Tang TK* Modeling Human Primary Microcephaly With hiPSC-Derived Brain Organoids Carrying CPAP-E1235V Disease-Associated Mutant Protein Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 10, 1-18 (2022-03) [JCR] [WOS]
  3. Chang CH, Chen TY, Lu IL, Li RB, Tsai JJ, Lin PY, Tang TK* CEP120-mediated KIAA0753 recruitment onto centrioles is required for timely neuronal differentiation and germinal zone exit in the developing cerebellum. Genes & development 35(21-22), 1445-1460 (2021-11) [JCR] [WOS]
  4. Chou EJ, Tang TK* Human Microcephaly Protein RTTN Is Required for Proper Mitotic Progression and Correct Spindle Position Cells 10(6), 1441 (2021-06) [JCR] [WOS]
  5. Chen TY, Huang BM, Tang TK, Chao YY, Xiao XY, Lee PR, Yang LY, Wang CY Genotoxic stress-activated DNA-PK-p53 cascade and autophagy cooperatively induce ciliogenesis to maintain the DNA damage response. Cell death and differentiation 28, 1865–1879 (2021-01) [JCR] [WOS]
  6. Lin YN, Lee YS, Li SK, Tang TK* Loss of CPAP in developing mouse brain and its functional implication in human primary microcephaly. Journal of cell science 133(12), 1-14 (2020-06) [JCR] [WOS]
  7. Tsai JJ, Hsu WB, Liu JH, Chang CW, Tang TK* CEP120 interacts with C2CD3 and Talpid3 and is required for centriole appendage assembly and ciliogenesis. Scientific reports 9(1), 6037 (2019-04) [JCR] [WOS]
  8. Wu CT, Chen HY, Tang TK* Myosin-Va is required for preciliary vesicle transportation to the mother centriole during ciliogenesis. Nature cell biology 20(2), 175-185 (2018-01) [JCR] [WOS]
  9. Wang ZH, Chang YY, Wu JG, Lin CY, An HL, Luo SC, Tang TK, Su WF Novel 3D Neuron Regeneration Scaffolds Based on Synthetic Polypeptide Containing Neuron Cue Macromolecular Bioscience 1700251, 1-12 (2017-12) [JCR] [WOS]
  10. Chen HY, Wu CT, Tang CC, Lin YN, Wang WJ, Tang TK* Human microcephaly protein RTTN interacts with STIL and is required to build full-length centrioles. Nature communications 8(1), 247 (2017-08) [JCR] [WOS]