Bio

Curriculum Vitae

I was born and raised in Taiwan. After receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from National Taiwan University, I traveled across the Pacific for graduate studies at the Scripps Research Institute with Professor M. Reza Ghadiri, where I worked on developing new DNA sequencing technologies and demonstrated that DNA movement at the single molecule level can be spatially and temporally resolved as it threads through a-hemolysin (a protein nanopore). Upon receiving my Ph.D. degree, I moved to Yale University (2011) to work with Alanna Schepartz and built the first beta-peptide bundle that binds sugars/polyols. My next stop was Rockefeller University (2014), where I developed Syn-BNP (synthetic-bioinformatic natural product), a culture-independent pipeline for the discovery of bioactive small molecules.

In the summer of 2019, I joined my alma mater, the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan University, as an assistant professor to start his independent research career. In light of the fact that microorganisms use natural products to communicate with each other and interact with the environment, I see the study of natural products as a way to understand the chemical language spoken by the most abundant form of life on earth. Currently, my research entails three aspects of natural products: discovery, chemical synthesis, and enzymes responsible for their production.

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Courses I teach at NTU include Advanced Chemical Biology (graduate level), Natural Product Chemistry, and Bioorganic Chemistry, and Biochemistry.

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​In my leisure time, I enjoy playing golf and piano.

Contact

If you would like to join our team, forge a collaboration, or just chat about crazy research ideas, feel free to contact me.

johnchu@ntu.edu.tw

+886 2 3366 8654 (Office)

+886 2 3366 8653 (Lab)

Department of Chemistry, Rm A521

National Taiwan University

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國立台灣大學

化學系暨研究所 積學館 A521