[ISSUE CoM] Meeting the future challenge. TMU Research Center for Thoracic Medicine

Air pollution and aging of populations are two major emerging health challenges in Taiwan and around the world. In human respiratory system, air pollution and aging cast an impact on both the prevalence and severity of several diseases, including asthma, COPD and lung cancer. TMU has recently upgraded the Research consortium of Thoracic Medicine into TMU Research Center for Thoracic Medicine in terms of personnel, research funding and facility, to meet the emerging challenge.

Led by Professor Kuo, Dean of College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University (TMU), the Research Center for Thoracic Medicine is a multi-disciplinary research group aiming to investigate both the clinical and basic science aspects of sleep medicine, chronic airway disease, severe asthma, lung cancer, critical care, pulmonary tuberculosis and interventional bronchoscopy. The clinical practice in the three affiliated hospitals has been subsequently advanced by the introduction of real-time endobronchial ultrasound, impulse oscillometry and new therapeutic options including thermoplasty, tracheobron-chial stenting, endobronchial cryotherapy and provisional therapy with mesenchymal stem cells in severe asthma and ARDS.

Basic science research will apply animal model, cell biology, molecular and genomic biology to advance our knowledge into the pathogenesis, and to explore potential therapeutic direction of clinically related disease. Based on the maturely developed artificial intelligence platform in TMU, several wearable devices will also be introduced and integrated into a healthcare model that helps monitor patients closely with advanced algorithm in sleep medicine, critical care medicine and asthma.