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12-19-2006 A state-of-art greenhouse of the Academia Sinica Biotechnology Experimental Center in Southern Taiwan (AS-BEST) was officially dedicated and presented to the public at an onsite ceremony at 1:30 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2006. The new greenhouse is located in the Tainan Science-Based Park in the southern agricultural heartland.
The general public and academics were cordially invited to attend the whole event from the official opening of the greenhouse to a half-day mini-symposium on plant biotechnology.
During the ceremony, guests enjoyed speeches delivered by several honorable guests including Mr. Huan-Chih Su, magistrate of Tainan County; Dr. Shyh-Yu Shaw representative from National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU) and Dr. Chi-Huey Wong, president of Academia Sinica were entertained by a local elementary school's folk dance and drum band.
In the mini-symposium, New Opportunity for Taiwan Biotechnology, invited speakers gave public presentations in plain language on their on-going research related to the AS-BEST foci. Dr. Ming-Tsair Chan of ABRC/AS-BEST gave a talk on "orchid transformation and application". Dr. Hao-Jen Huang, Professor at the Department of Life Science and Institute of Biotechnology of NCKU talked about his studies on molecular mechanisms of disease resistance on orchids and their applications. Dr. Chii-Gong Tong of AS-BEST addressed on the "development and application of enzymes for bio-energy transformation". General discussions on those topics were followed by the participants.
Academia Sinica started to create The AS-BEST in two years ago, and now is overseen by a scientific board chaired by Dr. Tuan-hua David Ho, director of IPMB. Its goals are to conduct innovative collaborations with industry for advancing frontiers of plant biotechnology as well as developing breakthrough agricultural products with extension to other applications such as foods, drugs and bio-energy. Current research includes elevation of cultivation quality of vegetables and floral species to improve commercial competition, and applications of molecular farming to the added values of agricultural products and the profitable industrial platform. |
