Profile

Education

Ph.D. (2007) - Department of Microbiology. Oregon State University. USA

Professional Experiences

Assistant professor        (2012-)            Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College, National Cheng Kung University

Postdoctoral researcher (2009-2012)    University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Postdoctoral researcher (2007-2009)    University of Oklahoma Health science Center

Expertise

Bacteriology

Bacterial genetics

Molecular Biology

Research Interest

Our lab will focus on the virulence properties of Clostridial surface proteins. Specifically, we will concentrate our studies on Clostridium difficile. C. difficile is a muti-drug resistant human pathogen and is the number one cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in hospital patients worldwide. Over the past decade, incidence of C. difficile associated infections have steadily increased due to the emergence of hypervirulent strains. It has been shown in the past that two exotoxins (TcdA and TcdB) are major virulence factors resulting in diseases ranging from antibiotic-associated diarrhea to life-threatening pseudomembraneous colitis. However, little is known about other factors involved in adherence and colonization. We will focus on dissecting the role of surface proteins as virulence factors. Specifically we are interested in how sortase-anchored proteins aid in colonization and adherence. Secondly, we will also explore the structure and function of an uncharacterized Type IV Pilus (T4P) operon in C. difficile. 

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed research articles

1.        Huang IH, Chang C, Agranayak A, Mandlik A, Rogers A, and Ton-That H*. Direct sortase-sortase interaction is required for efficience anchoring of pilus inCorynebacterium diphtheriae. (In preparation). SCI.

2.        Trost E, Blom J, Soares Sde C, Huang IH, Al-Dilaimi A, Schröder J, Jaenicke S, Dorella FA, Rocha FS, Miyoshi A, Azevedo V, Schneider MP, Silva A, Camello TC, Sabbadini PS, Santos CS, Santos LS, Hirata R Jr, Mattos-Guaraldi AL, Efstratiou A, Schmitt MP, Ton-That H, Tauch A*. 2012 April. Pangenomic study of Corynebacterium diphtheriae that provides insights into the genomic diversity of pathogenic isolates from cases of classical diphtheria, endocarditis, and pneumonia. J Bacteriol. 194(12):3199-215. SCI.

3.        Wu C, Mishra A, Reardon ME, Huang IH, Counts SC, Das A, Ton-That H*. 2012 May. Structural determinants of Actinomyces sortase SrtC2 required for membrane localization and assembly of type 2 fimbriae for interbacterial coaggregation and oral biofilm formation. J. Bacteriol. 194(10):2531-9. SCI.

4.        Khare B, Fu ZQ, Huang IH, Ton-That H, Narayana SV*. 2011 Dec. The crystal structure analysis of group B Streptococcus sortase C1: a model for the "lid" movement upon substrate binding. J. Mol Biol. 414(4):563-77. SCI.

5.        Liu J, Wu C, Huang IH, Merritt J, Qi F*. 2011 Sept. Differential response of Streptococcus mutans towards friend and foe in mixed-species cultures. Microbiology. 157(Pt 9):2433-44. SCI.

6.        Khare B, Krishnan V, Rajashankar KR, I-Hsiu H, Xin M, Ton-That H, Narayana SV. 2011 Aug. Structural differences between the Streptococcus agalactiae housekeeping and pilus-specific sortases: SrtA and SrtC1. PLoS ONE. 6(8) e22995. SCI.

7.        Khare B, Samal A, Vengadesan K, Rajashankar KR, Ma X, Huang IH, Ton-That H, Narayana SV*. 2010 Sept. Preliminary crystallographic study of the Streptococcus agalactiae sortases, sortase A and sortase C1. Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 1;66(Pt 9):1096-100. SCI.

8.        Nguyen N, Zhang Z, Huang IH, Wu C, Merritt J, Shi W, and F Qi*. 2009 Feb. Genes Involved in the Repression of Mutacin I Production in Streptococcus mutans. Microbiology. 155(2):551-556. SCI.

9.        Mendez M, Huang IH, Ohtani K, Grau R, Shimizu T, Sarker MR*. 2008 Jan. Carbon catabolite repression of type IV pilus-dependent gliding motility in the anaerobic pathogen Clostridium perfringens. J. Bacteriology. 190(1):48-60. (Co-first author). SCI.

10.    Huang IH, and MR Sarker. 2006. Complementation of a Clostridium perfringens spo0A mutant with wild-type spo0A from other Clostridium species. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2006 Sep;72(9):6388-93. SCI.

11.    Philippe VA, Méndez MB, Huang IH, Orsaria LM, Sarker MR, Grau RR. 2006. Inorganic phosphate induces spore morphogenesis and enterotoxin production in the intestinal pathogen Clostridium perfringens. Infect Immun. 2006 Jun;74(6):3651-6.SCI.

12.    Huang IH, Waters M, Grau RR, Sarker MR. 2004. Disruption of the gene (spo0A) encoding sporulation transcription factor blocks endospore formation and enterotoxin production in enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens type A. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2004 Apr 15;233(2):233-40. SCI.

Invited Review articles

1.        Chang CY*, Huang IH*, and Hendrickx AP. 2012. Characterization of Gram-positive pilus. Methods Mol Biol. (Soon to be published, but it’s an editor invited article so publication is guaranteed). (Co-first author). SCI.

2.        Huang, IH., Dwivedi, P. and Ton-That, H*. 2010 Apr. Bacterial Pili and Fimbriae. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Published online.