Lab Introduction & Major Research Interests
Dr. Ming-Che Kuo (郭明哲), MD
台大醫院癌醫中心分院 神經科主治醫師
• Department of Medicine, National Taiwan University Cancer Center
• Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital
• College of Medicine, National Taiwan University
• Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University
• Secretary-General of the Taiwan Movement Disorders Society
• Director of the Taiwanese Parkinson’s Disease Association
• Member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
• Member of the Taiwan Neurology Society
• Member of the Taiwan Stroke Society
• Member of the Society for Neurological Rare Disorders
Research interest: To disclose biofluid, neuroimaging, and genetic biomarkers of neurodegenerative alpha-synucleinopathy such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA).
Current working projects:
1. EEG-derived Evoked potentials (EP) to differentiate patients with atypical parkinsonism syndromes versus controls.
2. CNS-derived EV and its proteomic or metabolomic cargos to differentiate neurodegenerative diseases
3. Circulating miRNA or EV-derived proteins as biomarkers of PD and MSA.
4. A clinical trial of assessing the therapeutic effect of herb-derived ingredients and extracted exosomes in rescuing rare neurodegenerative diseases, such as spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA).
5. A clinical trial in using an NMDA modulator to treat cerebellar ataxia in MSA.
Previous research work:
1. MRI-derived brain age estimation: to differentiate PD and MSA [1], or identify modifiable risk factors of cognition [2].
2. Genetic study: causative variants/mutations of PD [3, 4] and MSA [5], gene-environment interaction studies of MSA [6]
3. Extracellular vesicles (EV): host- or bacteria-derived extracellular vesicles [7].
4. AI-assisted platform in assessing the limb motion and gait of patients with PD [8, 9].
Recent Representative Publication ( * corresponding author)
1. Chen CL, Kuo MC*, Wu WC, Hsu YC, Wu RM, Tseng WI*. Advanced brain aging in multiple system atrophy compared to Parkinson’s disease. Neuroimage Clin. 2022;34:102997. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102997. Epub 2022 Mar 30. PMID: 35397330; PMCID: PMC8987993.
2. Chen CL, Kuo MC, Chen PY, Tung YH, Hsu YC, Huang CC, Chan WP, Tseng WI. Validation of neuroimaging-based brain age gap as a mediator between modifiable risk factors and cognition. Neurobiol Aging. 2022 Jun;114:61-72. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.03.006. Epub 2022 Mar 15. PMID: 35413484.
3. Kuo MC, Chu YT, Su YA, Chen ML, Wu RM. Prosaposin variants in sporadic, familial, and early-onset Parkinson’s disease: a Taiwanese case-control study and meta-analysis. Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 26;14(1):2225. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-51646-y. PMID: 38278831; PMCID: PMC10817969.
4. Vollstedt EJ, Schaake S, Lohmann K, Padmanabhan S, Brice A, Lesage S, Tesson C, Vidailhet M, Wurster I, Hentati F, Mirelman A, Giladi N, Marder K, Waters C, Fahn S, Kasten M, Brüggemann N, Borsche M, Foroud T, Tolosa E, Garrido A, Annesi G, Gagliardi M, Bozi M, Stefanis L, Ferreira JJ, Correia Guedes L, Avenali M, Petrucci S, Clark L, Fedotova EY, Abramycheva NY, Alvarez V, Menéndez-González M, Jesús Maestre S, Gómez-Garre P, Mir P, Belin AC, Ran C, Lin CH, Kuo MC, Crosiers D, Wszolek ZK, Ross OA, Jankovic J, Nishioka K, Funayama M, Clarimon J, Williams-Gray CH, Camacho M, Cornejo-Olivas M, Torres-Ramirez L, Wu YR, Lee-Chen GJ, Morgadinho A, Pulkes T, Termsarasab P, Berg D, Kuhlenbäumer G, Kühn AA, Borngräber F, de Michele G, De Rosa A, Zimprich A, Puschmann A, Mellick GD, Dorszewska J, Carr J, Ferese R, Gambardella S, Chase B, Markopoulou K, Satake W, Toda T, Rossi M, Merello M, Lynch T, Olszewska DA, Lim SY, Ahmad-Annuar A, Tan AH, Al-Mubarak B, Hanagasi H, Koziorowski D, Ertan S, Genç G, de Carvalho Aguiar P, Barkhuizen M, Pimentel MMG, Saunders-Pullman R, van de Warrenburg B, Bressman S, Toft M, Appel-Cresswell S, Lang AE, Skorvanek M, Boon AJW, Krüger R, Sammler EM, Tumas V, Zhang BR, Garraux G, Chung SJ, Kim YJ, Winkelmann J, Sue CM, Tan EK, Damásio J, Klivényi P, Kostic VS, Arkadir D, Martikainen M, Borges V, Hertz JM, Brighina L, Spitz M, Suchowersky O, Riess O, Das P, Mollenhauer B, Gatto EM, Petersen MS, Hattori N, Wu RM, Illarioshkin SN, Valente EM, Aasly JO, Aasly A, Alcalay RN, Thaler A, Farrer MJ, Brockmann K, Corvol JC, Klein C; MJFF Global Genetic Parkinson’s Disease Study Group. Embracing Monogenic Parkinson’s Disease: The MJFF Global Genetic PD Cohort. Mov Disord. 2023 Feb;38(2):286-303. doi: 10.1002/mds.29288. Epub 2023 Jan 24. PMID: 36692014.
5. Gu X, Chen Y, Zhou Q, Lu YC, Cao B, Zhang L, Kuo MC, Wu YR, Wu RM, Tan EK, Shang HF; Asian Multiple System Atrophy Consortium (AMSAC). Analysis of GWAS-linked variants in multiple system atrophy. Neurobiol Aging. 2018 Jul;67:201.e1-201.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.03.018. Epub 2018 Mar 23. PMID: 29661569.
6. Kuo MC, Lu YC, Tai CH, Soong BW, Hu FC, Chen ML, Lin CH, Wu RM. COQ2 and SNCA polymorphisms interact with environmental factors to modulate the risk of multiple system atrophy and subtype disposition. Eur J Neurol. 2022 Oct;29(10):2956-2966. doi: 10.1111/ene.15475. Epub 2022 Jul 5. PMID: 35748722.
7. Li CC, Hsu WF, Chiang PC, Kuo MC, Wo AM, Tseng YJ. Characterization of markers, functional properties, and microbiome composition in human gut-derived bacterial extracellular vesicles. Gut Microbes. 2023 Dec;15(2):2288200. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2288200. Epub 2023 Dec 1. PMID: 38038385; PMCID: PMC10730231.
8. Ho MY, Kuo MC, Chen CS, Wu RM, Chuang CC, Shih CS, Tseng YJ. Pathological Gait Analysis With an Open-Source Cloud-Enabled Platform Empowered by Semi-Supervised Learning-PathoOpenGait. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform. 2024 Feb;28(2):1066-1077. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2023.3340716. Epub 2024 Feb 5. PMID: 38064333.
9. Yang YY, Ho MY, Tai CH, Wu RM, Kuo MC*, Tseng YJ*. FastEval Parkinsonism: an instant deep learning-assisted video-based online system for Parkinsonian motor symptom evaluation. NPJ Digit Med. 2024 Feb 8;7(1):31. doi: 10.1038/s41746-024-01022-x. PMID: 38332372; PMCID: PMC10853559.