Dr.Chawnshang Chang grew up in Taiwan, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from the National Taiwan University in 1978. Like many students before him, he made the trip across the Pacific Ocean to enter graduate school in the U.S., and earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1985. As Professor Shutsung Liao's student, he cloned and characterized two androgen target genes. The first was Glutathione S-transferase, which represented the first isolated androgen-repressed gene (JBC, 1987) and the second was Spermine-binding protein, the first isolated androgen early-response gene (JBC, 1987).
With this solid training in cloning techniques and the encouragement from his mentor, Dr. Liao, he remained as a post doctorate fellow in Dr. Liao's lab to investigate what was the biggest challenge in the field of Andrology; the cloning of the androgen receptor. In 1988, Chawnshang succeeded in becoming the first scientist to clone the complete human and rat androgen receptors. (Science, 1988; PNAS, 1988). He then applied recombinant techniques to overexpress a large quantity of androgen receptor (AR) and used it to produce the first monoclonal antibody to the androgen receptor (Endo., 1989). The successful cloning of the androgen receptor and the generation of the first androgen receptor monoclonal antibody was not only truly groundbreaking, but also represented one of the most important contributions in the field of Andrology. Over the next 20 years, he continued his research and had more than 200 paper published on the fields of AR, TR2 and TR4. Want to know more about his achievement? Please go to the web site of his lab (
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/ChangARLab/chang.html) for details.
The George H. Whipple Lab for Cancer Research's interest is mainly in the sex hormones/nuclear receptors and Vitamin D/E effects on the prostate/bladder cancer and other hormone-related diseases.
