Hans Chun-Hung Lin, from Taipei, China, will take up his new role as President-Elect of FAOBMB from 1 January 2025
Professor Chun-Hung (Hans) Lin
Incoming President-Elect of FAOBMB
Chun-Hung Lin (also known as Hans) was born in 1968 in Taipei, Taiwan. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University (B.S. 1990). He then went to the United States to study his PhD under the supervision of Prof Chi-Huey Wong at The Scripps Research Institute. His thesis research was to investigate and apply enzymes for carbohydrate synthesis, including sialic acid aldolase, glycosyltransferases (to synthesize sialyl Lewis x and other oligosaccharides) and sulfotransferases. After receiving his PhD in Chemistry in 1995, Hans spent another two years in Prof Christopher Walsh’s lab at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral research fellow, studying the reaction mechanisms of glutathionylspermidine synthetase/amidase and the enzymes involved in vancomycin resistance.
Dr Lin returned to Taiwan in 1997, starting his independent career in the Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC), Academia Sinica Taiwan (AST). He later obtained a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biochemical Sciences at National Taiwan University. His research placed a special emphasis on the development of enzyme inhibitors, especially for glycosidases, glycosyltransferases and glycan-binding proteins. He and coworkers have successfully developed several potent and selective inhibitors in the range of nano- to pico-molar (expressed as IC50 or Ki value), as well as resolved related X-ray structures to obtain the structure–activity relationship. Their efforts were also extended to study the interplay between Helicobacter pylori (the major gastric pathogen) and gastric epithelial cells.
Having supervised over 40 PhD students and 60 MSc students, Hans has published more than 150 refereed papers. His research contributions and accomplishments have been recognized by the award to him of a number of honors. These include: Excellent Young Scientist from the Chemical Society at Taipei; One of the Top Ten Rising Stars in Taiwan by the Central News Agency of Taiwan; Young Affiliate of TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences); Young Scholar Award of the Tien-De Li Biomedical Foundation; Investigator Award of Academia Sinica; Outstanding Research Award of National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan.
Furthermore, Hans is very experienced in administration. He served as Associate Director of his institute (IBC), the Director, Department of Academic Affairs and Instrumental Services in AST, and Associate Editor of the journal Carbohydrate Research, Hans has acted as the National Representative of Taiwan for International Carbohydrate Organization. He is also President of the KT Wang Bioorganic Chemistry Foundation. The organization, advocating the development of chemical biology and related biotech industry in Taiwan, has devoted resources to support scientific education and invited outstanding international researchers (including Nobel laureates) for visits and interactions with young scientists of the upcoming generation.