Allergy, Immunology, and Microbiome (A.I.M.) Research Center/China Medical University Children’s Hospital (Taichung, Taiwan)
The goal of A.I.M. center is to initiate and reinforce collaborations across traditional scientific and clinical disciplines through education and scientific research to foster excellence in clinical care for allergy and mucosal inflammation disorders.
China Medical University (CMU) is the second largest healthcare system nationwide providing superb service of western and Chinese medicine. To specialize medical care in pediatric, CMU Children's Hospital (CMUCH) was founded in 2004. Although the history is not long, it has achieved great work in patient and family friendly care, research, and education. CMUCH is now the largest children's hospital in central Taiwan.
The Research Center for Allergy, Immunology, and Microbiome (A.I.M.) in CMUCH is established by clinical and research faculty in the department of pediatric allergy, immunology, and rheumatology (Ped. AIR). The department has pediatric allergists, pulmonologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, ENT’s and traditional Chinese Medicine Doctors as well as pharmacists, nurses, and registered dietitians with specialized knowledge and skills related to medical problems of allergic disorders that include asthma, food allergies, urticaria, atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and allergic conjunctivitis. A.I.M. center specializes in treating and researching allergic and autoimmune disorders, especially focus on the interaction and inter-relationship between host mucosal immunity and microbiome. Hence, our center is composed of four laboratories (Microbiome 16S rRNA Sequencing Lab, Bioinformatics Lab, Microorganism Biobank, and Mucosal Immunology Lab) targeting the development and prevention of allergic diseases based on microbiome studies.
The center is chaired by Professor Jiu-Yao Wang M.D, DPhil. The main academic research fields are environmental and genetic research on allergic asthma, the mechanism of allergic reactions caused by allergens of house dust mites, the effect of Chinese herbal medicines and probiotics on allergic diseases, the mechanism of innate immunity in the lungs, and related research.
We focus on investigating the interaction between microbiome and immune system in mucosal inflammation disorders as following:
Precision microbiome profiling:
Allergy and mucosal inflammation disorders/Microbiome clustering and diseases profiling/Multi-omics integration/AI Deep learning
Microbiome signature for drug response:
Human Microbiome and drug response/Human Microbiome and TCM interaction
Biomarker, target and LBT discovery:
Diseases Dysbiosis index and scores/Identify candidate for Live Bacterial Therapeutics (LBT) for microbiome-based Therapy/Microbial metabolites mining as novel drug candidate
Through the accreditation by WAO, we are better able to interact and interface with allergology and clinical immunology societies from around the world, to fulfill our purpose and to remain committed to the progress of Allergy and Clinical Immunology for the benefit of patients.
