Welcome to the First Core Laboratory at National Taiwan University College of Medicine (NTUCM). This facility serves as a dedicated space for interdisciplinary science research. To foster genuine collaboration and innovation across scientific boundaries, our specific physical facilities are exclusively dedicated to interdisciplinary science research teams and are not used for any other purposes.
We provide a comprehensive collaborative environment that explicitly integrates multiple applicable disciplines. The First Core Laboratory provides common research instruments for the entire college. These include state-of-the-art tools for molecular imaging, cryo-electron microscopy, molecular biology, cell analysis, sorting, next-generation gene sequencing, and research on the human microbiome. Furthermore, our facility encompasses highly specialized environments, such as the Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory (BSL-3), to safely conduct cross-disciplinary infectious disease research.
The First Core Laboratory supports a total of 31 basic science departments and institutes, as well as 18 clinical units across the college. Breaking through traditional single-use space configurations, all our core laboratories are fully accessible to faculty and students from diverse disciplines across the university. Our dedicated technical staff provide expert consultation on experimental design and actively facilitate collaborative opportunities across various research fields. To date, we have assisted researchers in medicine, pharmacy, public health, life sciences, engineering, and informatics. We also extend our support to industry partners, successfully creating a comprehensive interdisciplinary research environment that bridges basic research and clinical applications.
Beyond providing advanced hardware, the First Core Laboratory integrates medical campus research resources to provide dedicated technical support and specialized services. Our facility offers cross-disciplinary technical experts who bridge the gap between biomedical sciences and informatics. For instance, our experts provide customized software methodology, advanced 3D visualization scripts, and bespoke image extraction algorithms to solve complex biomedical challenges that cannot be addressed by a single discipline alone.
Our dedicated facility has empowered numerous research teams to achieve high-impact interdisciplinary breakthroughs. Below are recent highlights demonstrating our successful integration of diverse scientific fields:
SCV extractor: AI-based segmentation for expanded cells
Reference: Fu, CH., Hsu, YT., Hsu, SC. et al. Intracellular Salmonella hijacks the mitochondrial citrate carrier to evade host oxidative defenses. Nat Commun 16, 9806 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64779-z