RadioBiology and Molecular Imaging Lab
Research Field
Dr. Hui-Yen Chuang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU). A recognized expert in medical imaging, she earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the same department at National Yang-Ming University. Following her doctoral studies, she advanced her expertise through a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir. She also holds professional licenses as a Medical Radiological Technologist and Senior Radiation Protection Personnel in Taiwan.
Dr. Chuang’s laboratory focuses on bridging the gap between molecular imaging, advanced cancer therapeutics, and radiobiology. She leads a dynamic research team that currently includes one PhD student, four master's students, and several undergraduate students. The atmosphere in her lab is open and collaborative. Dr. Chuang emphasizes the importance of kindness, a willingness to help, and integrity over simply achieving ideal experimental results or publications.
Lab meetings are held every two weeks, allowing everyone to share their findings, thoughts, and discuss their work with other lab members. Additionally, eating out and karaoke are part of their lab activities, fostering team bonding and collaboration.
Her recent and ongoing scientific contributions include:
Enhancing Radiotherapy & Nanomedicine: Dr. Chuang investigates metabolic targeting to overcome tumor radioresistance, demonstrating that inhibiting fatty acid synthase (FASN) can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy in breast cancer. Besides, they have shown that natural compounds, such as beta-caryophyllene, can modulate apoptosis and enhance radiosensitivity in both glioblastoma (GBM) and colorectal cancer models. Recently, they also explored the critical intersection of radiotherapy and immunology, recently revealing how high-dose irradiation promotes macrophage-mediated engulfment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) via the IKZF1-CCL5 axis.
Nanomedicine & Immunomodulation: Her work actively investigates how therapeutic compounds and advanced nanostructures act as immunomodulators. Her 2025 publications showcase the use of gold nanoparticle-loaded macrophages to drive immune remodeling in oral cancer.
Advanced Diagnostics & Imaging Methodology: She is a pioneer in developing highly sensitive methods for cancer detection. Her 2026 research highlights the integration of scaffold/matrix attachment region (S/MAR) motifs into tumor-activatable minicircles to achieve sustained, dual-biomarker cancer detection from blood and urine. Her work also extends to developing molecular imaging probes targeting the extracellular matrix and immunosuppressive cells to better visualize the entire tumor microenvironment.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=9GLdnWUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
- Distinguished Award in Mentoring in 2025, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
- Fellowship of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Postdoctoral Research Abroad Program (PRAP). 2016-2017, Minister of Science and Technology, Taiwan
- Scholarship of Ministry of Science and Technology Overseas Project for Post Graduate Research 2013-2014, Minister of Science and Technology, Taiwan
- Women in Molecular Imaging Scholar Award, 2015 World Molecular Imaging Congress, Honolulu, USA
- Young Investigator Award, 2015 10th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Molecular Imaging conjunct with a FASMI annual meeting, Tokyo, Japan 2015
- Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, CA, USA. 2016/07-2018/07 (Mentored by Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir)
- Ph.D., Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. 2010/09-2015/06
- MS., Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. 2007/09-2009/01.
- BS., Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. 2003/09-2007/06.