Welcome To My Page-Tao(JT)Jiang

"Hello World"

I am Tao (JT) Jiang. I am here to study the nature of the world, inspired by the wildlife TV show when I was a child. The thirst for exploring the mysterious but amazing nature has been driving me, from botany to animal kingdoms, to concentrate on the basic science for more than 10 years, which equipped me with a well-disciplined mind as well as versatile skills in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology and proteomics etc.

Now I am seeking opportunities in biotech industries and healthcare fields which can lead me to serve this real world in a more practical way.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Student
Undergraduate Student

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Research Summary (2012~Present)

Currently I am studying how animals develop as a postdoctoral fellow in Tony Harris lab. Specifically, when fruit fly embryos are developing their first epithelium, ~6,000 cells have been created after several rounds of division and harboring the in-out direction (which is called apico-basal polarity). Here I am pursing two main questions: 1.How do the polarization pathways tune for the isotropic junctions that seal those cells as one sheet? 2.How cells are separated by actomyosin networks during division?

Techniques (being) Used:

IP/LC-MS to identify kinase targets functioning in the same pathway.
IP/Western blotting to confirm protein-protein interactions.
Live or fixed imaging by using spining disc microscope to observe the localization of proteins.
Molecular coloning to generate constructs of interests.
RIP/Chip to investigate transcriptome regulated by RNA binding proteins.

Research Summary (2005~2011)

I was working on plants (Arabidopsis) as a graduate student in Dapeng Zhang lab, interested in how phytohormone ABA regulates plant response to adverse environment(such as dehydration). Under drought conditions, ABA shuts down stoma-the small pores in between leaf cells and prevents water loss. My colleague and I screened two important ABA signaling regulators by using reverse genetics and investigated the involved pathways.

Meanwhile, I investigated the expression patterns of one ABA receptor as well as the circadian activities of stoma, sucessfully generated four poly-clonal antibodies for my colleagues, to cooperate with their works.

Techniques Used:

Yeast one/two/three-hybrid to screen/identify protein-protein/DNA interactions.
IP/Western blotting/BiFC to confirm protein-protein interactions.
Protein expression and purification to generate antigen for antibodies generation.
FPLC to identify protein native state.
Live or fixed imaging by using laser scanning confocal microscope to study proteins localization.
Molecular coloning to generate constructs of interests.
Plants breeding and physiological analysis to observe relavant phenotypes.

Research Summary (2001~2005)

I love flowering flowers, so I choosed indoor umbrella tree (Schefflera octophylla) in the hallway of our department as the subject, in my thesis research of how to propagate plants by using cutted parts from the mother plants. The idea is to induce reprogramming of the tissue cells then differentiation of callus. The project finally revealed the potential mechanisms of how plant hormones (e.g. indole-3-acetic acid) balance callus differentiation versus proliferation in Schefflera octophylla.

Techniques Used:

Plant tissue culture to induce callus or tissue differentiation.
Plant Physiological experiments to test the induction efficiency of phytohormones.
Protein purification to extract the total protein from tissues/callus.
HPLC to determine the composition of amino acids in callus.