Dr Yuhsuan Tsai
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry
- tsaiy5@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 9285
- 1.54, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
Overview
My research interests include:
- Synthesis of biological important molecules
- Study of protein functions by genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids
Links
Research Groups: Biological and Organic Chemistry
Personal website: http://tsai-lab.org/
Biography
BSc, National Taiwan University (2003-2006); MSc, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich (2007-2008); Dr. rer. nat., Freie Universitat Berlin (2009-2012, P. H. Seeberger). Research Assistant, Academia Sinica (2006-2007, S.-H. Wu); MRC Career Development Fellow and EMBO Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (2012-2014, J. W. Chin). Lecturer, Cardiff (2015 -).
Publications
2020
- Tang, T. M. S.et al. 2020. Use of an asparaginyl endopeptidase for chemo-enzymatic peptide and protein labeling. Chemical Science 11(23), pp. 5881-5888. (10.1039/D0SC02023K)
- Nödling, A.et al. 2020. Cyanine dye mediated mitochondrial targeting enhances the anti-cancer activity of small-molecule cargoes. Chemical Communications 56(34), pp. 4672-4675. (10.1039/C9CC07931A)
- Nödling, A. R.et al. 2020. Enabling protein-hosted organocatalytic transformations. RSC Advances 10(27), pp. 16147-16161. (10.1039/D0RA01526A)
- Zheng, X.et al. 2020. Condensation of 2-((Alkylthio)(aryl)methylene)malononitrile with 1,2-Aminothiol as a novel bioorthogonal reaction for site-specific protein modification and peptide cyclization. Journal of the American Chemical Society 142(11), pp. 5097-5103. (10.1021/jacs.9b11875)
- Mills, E. M.et al. 2020. Applying switchable Cas9 variants to in vivo gene editing for therapeutic applications. Cell Biology and Toxicology 36, pp. 17-29. (10.1007/s10565-019-09488-2)
- Eissa, N.et al. 2020. EJP18 peptide derived from the juxtamembrane domain of epidermal growth factor receptor represents a novel membrane-active cell-penetrating peptide. Biochemical Journal 477(1), pp. 45-60. (10.1042/BCJ20190452)
2019
- Nodling, A. R.et al. 2019. Using genetically incorporated unnatural amino acids to control protein functions in mammalian cells. Essays in Biochemistry 63(2), pp. 237-266. (10.1042/EBC20180042)
- Patel, S. G.et al. 2019. Cell-penetrating peptide sequence and modification dependent uptake and subcellular distribution of green florescent protein in different cell lines. Scientific Reports 9(1), pp. -., article number: 6298. (10.1038/s41598-019-42456-8)
2018
- Nodling, A. R.et al. 2018. Reactivity and selectivity of iminium organocatalysis improved by a protein host. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 57(38), pp. 12478-12482. (10.1002/anie.201806850)
- Williams, T. L.et al. 2018. Carbapenems as water soluble organocatalysts. Wellcome Open Research 2018(3), article number: 107. (10.12688/wellcomeopenres.14721.1)
- Suzuki, T.et al. 2018. Switchable genome editing via genetic code expansion. Scientific Reports 8(1), article number: 10051. (10.1038/s41598-018-28178-3)
- Świderek, K.et al. 2018. Reaction mechanism of organocatalytic Michael addition of nitromethane to cinnamaldehyde: a case study on catalyst regeneration and solvent effects. Journal of Physical Chemistry A 122(1), pp. 451-459. (10.1021/acs.jpca.7b11803)
2017
- Liao, J.et al. 2017. Acetylome of acinetobacter baumannii SK17 reveals a highly-conserved modification of histone-like protein HU. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences 4, article number: 77. (10.3389/fmolb.2017.00077)
- Lai, S.et al. 2017. Site-specific His/Asp phosphoproteomic analysis of prokaryotes reveals putative targets for drug resistance. BMC Microbiology 17(1), article number: 123. (10.1186/s12866-017-1034-2)
2015
- Gotze, S.et al. 2015. Investigation of the protective properties of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-based vaccine candidates in a toxoplasma gondii mouse challenge model. Glycobiology 25(9), pp. 984-991. (10.1093/glycob/cwv040)
- Tsai, Y.et al. 2015. Selective, rapid and optically switchable regulation of protein function in live mammalian cells. Nature Chemistry 7, pp. 554-561. (10.1038/nchem.2253)
2014
- Götze, S.et al. 2014. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis using a synthetic glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycan. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 53(50), pp. 13701-13705. (10.1002/anie.201406706)
- Azzouz, Z.et al. 2014. Synthesis of diverse glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycans from toxoplasma gondii and their application as vaccines and diagnostics. WO2014016317 A1 [Patent].
- Azzouz, N.et al. 2014. Synthesis of diverse glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycans and glycolipids from toxoplasma gondii and their application as diagnostic markers and vaccines. EP2690438 A1 [Patent].
2013
- Tsai, Y.et al. 2013. A general and convergent synthesis of diverse glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycolipids. Chemical Science 4(1), pp. 468-481. (10.1039/C2SC21515B)
2012
- Tsai, Y., Liu, X. and Seeberger, P. H. 2012. Chemical biology of glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchors. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 51(46), pp. 11438-11456. (10.1002/anie.201203912)
- Tsai, Y.et al. 2012. Glycosylphosphatidylinositols of protozoan parasites. Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology 24(140), pp. 231-243. (10.4052/tigg.24.231)
2011
- Tsai, Y.et al. 2011. A general method for synthesis of GPI anchors illustrated by the total synthesis of the low-molecular-weight antigen from toxoplasma gondii. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 50(42), pp. 9961-9964. (10.1002/anie.201103483)
2010
- Hecht, M.et al. 2010. Synthetic inositol phosphoglycans related to GPI lack insulin-mimetic activity. ACS Chemical Biology 5(11), pp. 1075-1086. (10.1021/cb1002152)
- Oberli, M. A.et al. 2010. Molecular analysis of carbohydrate−antibody interactions: case study using a bacillus anthracis tetrasaccharide. Journal of the American Chemical Society 132(30), pp. 10239-10241. (10.1021/ja104027w)
- Kikkeri, R.et al. 2010. Facile synthesis of size dependent Ru(ii)?carbohydrate dendrimers via click chemistry. Chemical Communications 46(13), pp. 2197-2199. (10.1039/b925113h)
- Yang, Y.et al. 2010. Structural variation of glycolipids from Meiothermus taiwanensis ATCC BAA-400 under different growth temperatures. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 8(19), pp. 4252-4254. (10.1039/c0ob00169d)
2007
- Ren, C.et al. 2007. Synthesis of a tetrasaccharide glycosyl glycerol. Precursor to glycolipids of meiothermus taiwanensis ATCC BAA-400. Journal of Organic Chemistry 72(14), pp. 5427-5430. (10.1021/jo070629l)
- Synthesis of biological important molecules
- Study of protein functions by genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids
I am interested in applying synthetic chemistry in combination with biochemical and genetic methods to unravel the roles of proteins and protein posttranslational modifications.
Advances in genetic code expansion allow incorporation of unnatural amino acids in cells, and various chemical functionalities have been introduced site specifically into proteins, which provides great opportunity to investigate the biological functions of protein.