RESEARCH
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.
研究介紹
本實驗室的研究工作以三個相當重要的黃質病毒：日本腦炎病毒（JEV）、登革病毒（DENV）以及茲卡病毒（ZIKV）為主。JEV經由蚊子叮咬感染人類，會引起急性腦炎，有相當高的致死率。DENV會引起登革熱、或是較為嚴重的登革出血熱和登革休克症候群。ZIKV為新興黃質病毒，2015~2016間造成大規模且快速的流行，又被發現與嬰兒小頭症有關，且會經由性行為傳染而引起全球恐慌。黃質病毒基因體為一條具有一個開放閱讀架的正向RNA，會做出一個多聚蛋白質，經切割後可產生至少11個病毒的結構性與非結構性蛋白質。我們實驗室的研究著重於這三個病毒的分子生物學、病毒學、以及致病機轉等，整體目標希望能瞭解病毒與宿主之間的多面向性相互關係。
2019年底COVID-19病例出現，2020年疫情全球大爆發，中研院於2020年1月28日成立了一個因應COVID-19的工作小組，由廖院長指派Dr. 林宜玲負責協調工作。目前Dr. 林除了擔任中研院生醫所的P3實驗室主持人，也是生醫轉譯研究中心（BioTReC）新成立的“新興傳染病專題中心（Emerging Infectious Disease Division, EIDD）”首任執行長，並負責位於國家生技研究園區（NBRP）的傳染病核心設施（Infectious Disease Core Facility, ID Core）。因此，除了研究黃質病毒，SARS-CoV-2也成為我們的工作重心。我們已建立了各項病毒分析與檢測系統，來滿足為對抗COVID-19所研發產品的迫切抗病毒測試需求。我們協助中研院內和外部機構的研究人員進行抗病毒測定，也協助台灣廠商測試其產品的體外和體內抗病毒功效，其中兩家疫苗廠已獲准進行二期人體試驗，我們也繼續協助檢測其疫苗所誘發的抗SARS-CoV-2中和性抗體效價。
總體而言，林宜玲研究員實驗室長期從事病毒學研究，在日本腦炎病毒，登革病毒及茲卡病毒，建立起涵蓋基礎病毒學到應用性的抗病毒研究等系統，並持續發表研究成果。因應近年來新興病毒的崛起，不論是2016年的茲卡病毒或是去年至今的新冠病毒，不管是在P2或是P3實驗室，不管是原本熟悉的黃質或是陌生的冠狀病毒，我們實驗室團隊都快速反應，扮演火車頭的角色，即時在中研院建立起病毒感染系統，並推動各項工作的進行，我們不只專注於自己實驗室的研究工作，也協助學研界以及生醫產業界，對於可能有助於預防與治療的項目更是重視。在這些過程當中我們以協助防疫為最高原則，並培育特殊致病原的專業人才，建置日後所需的各項研究設施與體制，以期能在這些慘痛的疫情中學到教訓，在未來可能面對的未知新興傳染病挑戰時，能做得更好做得更快。
