Biochemistry

Biography

Dr. Yau-Huei Wei completed his PhD in Biochemistry in 1980 at the Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Albany and postdoctoral study at the Departments of Chemstry and Physics of the same university. In 1981, Dr. Wei started working as an associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry, National Yang-Ming University. He was promoted to professor in 1985 and served as the Chairman of the Department and was appointed as the Dean of Students Affairs and Dean of Academic Affairs, National Yang-Ming University. He is the President of Mackay Medical College, New Taipei City, Taiwan. He has published 375 papers in reputed journals and is serving as an editorial board member of Mitochondrion, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – General Subjects, and Free Radical Research.

Research Interest

Dr. Wei have been studying the role of alterations of mitochondrial function in aging and diseases and in stem cell differentiation. Dr. Wei have focused on the molecular basis for the pathophysiological changes in affected tissues in patients with mitochondrial diseases, and investigated oxidative stress-elicited alterations of gene expression and mitochondrial network in human cells harboring pathogenic mtDNA mutations. They discovered that protein kinase C-delta, PGC1-alpha and AMPK are involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and regulation of mtDNA copy number under oxidative stress, which may explain the over-proliferation of mitochondria in muscle of patients with mitochondrial diseases such as CPEO, MELAS and MERRF syndromes.