Meng-Chao Yao

Meng-Chao Yao is an Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and Research Fellow at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Academia Sinica. He leads a laboratory investigating molecular processes affecting genome stability in eukaryotes using Tetrahymena thermophila as a primary model organism.

His research centers on Genome Instability and RNA Interference, with key discoveries including cis-acting sequences regulating chromosome breakage (15 bp), DNA deletion boundaries, and ribosomal gene amplification. His lab demonstrated that DNA deletion constitutes an ultimate RNAi-mediated gene silencing mechanism involving 27nt siRNA, H3K9/H3K27 tri-methylation, and domesticated transposase activity.

Scientific awards:

• Academician of Academia Sinica

No information on student advising or research grants is provided in the source text. His laboratory developed a genome-wide detection method for inverted repeats in human cancer progression, extending Tetrahymena-based gene amplification mechanisms to mammalian systems.