Name: Yu-Hsiang Chen

Applying: Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, M.S. Program

Statement of Purpose
Yu-Hsiang Chen

Realizing the basic research is the major propulsion of biological science, I

started to get in touch with molecular biology in my undergraduate.

In my junior year, I joined Dr. Hsiu-Mei Hsieh’s lab and started applying my

knowledge of molecular genetics in text book to the real world. I was assigned to

study the correlation between androgen receptor CAG repeat length polymorphism

and the risk of prostate cancer in the Taiwanese population. It was challenging for

me since it was the first time to study this issue by using primary prostate tissue in

Taiwan. I learned how to build up the background knowledge by reviewing prostate

cancer related literatures and the concept of designing the experiment through the

entire project. I had developed not only the ability to work independently, but also

the positive attitude to troubleshoot the experiments when facing problems. Luckily,

I was awarded a scholarship from the National Science Council with this project.

In order to learn more interdisciplinary knowledge, I applied for the Joint

University’s Bioinformatics Program in the same year. My strong performance

(GPA=3.9) in this program earned me a place in Dr. Hsueh-Fen Juan’s lab at National

Taiwan University. Dr. Juan’s research was focusing on cancer therapy by using

systems biology. I was responsible for searching some biomarkers in breast cancer

using proteomics, mainly two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, in hopes of developing

innovative cancer drugs in the future. Several proteins with different expression

levels between cancer and control groups were identified. The experience in the

Bioinformatics Program did broaden my horizon in the field of molecular biology.

1
Name: Yu-Hsiang Chen
Applying: Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, M.S. Program

Even though these two projects I participated in were in a period of overlapping, I

could also work on such a tight schedule efficiently. Besides, I also excelled at the

academic performance. I was ranked as the 1st out of all 31 students in my class

in both semesters of my senior year and won the Award of Outstanding

Undergraduate Students and scholarships in these two semesters.

To further strengthen my research experience, I joined Dr. Wen Hsiung Li’s lab

as a research assistant at Academia Sinica after one year’s compulsory military

service in 2008. I am responsible for the High Throughput Core Facility, the

next-generation sequencer including 454 (Roche), and Solexa Genome Analyzer

(Illumina). The mission of the core facility is to generate high quality and quantity

sequencing, including biofuel-related projects, the major focusing issue in Dr. Li’s lab,

and many other kinds of projects from different labs in Academia Sinica, for the sake

of catching the information existed in different genomes or transtriptomes. As a

member in a newly established facility two years ago, I had an opportunity to help

setting up the most parts of the lab, including the instruments for constructing

sequencing library and the working systems; building up many rules and forms

necessary for every project. Now I am mostly in charge of assisting the facility

manager, Dr. Mei-Yeh Lu, in arranging sequencing projects and taking care of the

young lab members which are valuable experiences for doing research since I have to

understand the principles and details thoroughly before taking actions. Besides, as a

core facility at Academia Sinica, the highest research institution in Taiwan, we always

try our best to improve the sequencing performance rather than following regular

method. According to our efforts, we are the first group in Taiwan to generate 50

billion bases in a single Solexa run and to construct the mate pair library, which

can help us to build scaffolds from contigs greatly for Solexa sequencing. These
2
Name: Yu-Hsiang Chen
Applying: Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, M.S. Program

experiences reinforced my desire and confidence that I would like to explore more

experiences in science in the near future.

Moreover, working at Academia Sinica, where was occupied by many excellent

researchers with education background in the United States, gives me a great

opportunity to meet with many outstanding researchers. They show not only the

professional knowledge but also their sense of current orientation of the research

fields. I am thus convinced that pursuing an advanced degree in the United States

will be a great opportunity for me to receive the education with more diverse

viewpoints and ideas of science.

Since I had two years experiences working with genomics stuff, I am thinking of

coordinating genomics and translational research areas in the future. The

Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University-Purdue

University Indianapolis is a famous department in the area of human genetics study.

The research resources and the faculty with varieties of studies attract me to pursue

my M.S. degree in your program. I am particularly interested in the research of Dr.

Brittney-Shea Herbert, Dr. David Gilley, and Dr. Hiromi Tanaka. They are aiming to

understand the mechanisms of cancer in the viewpoint of the genomic instability and

find out the biomarker. I think these studies will be beneficial for cancer therapy and

give valuable insight to cancer research, which are the areas I am interested in. I

am confident in my capability and comprehensive lab experiences to study in the

graduate school. With the solid training in your program, I will be better equipped to

do research either in academia or in industry in the future. I intensely hope that I

could have an opportunity to join your program.