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Wei-Chen CHU

Weichen-photo

Profile

  • I'm an Imaging Core Facility Manager and Bioimage Analyst passionate about empowering researchers to generate high-quality imaging data and develop reproducible analysis workflows. I teach confocal microscopy and bioimage analysis with FIJI and AI tools, equipping trainees with the skills to independently plan, acquire, and troubleshoot their experiments. As part of my commitment to open science, I develop and share open-access training materials. Beyond training, I design and implement custom bioimage analysis workflows and provide expert consultation for advanced imaging projects.
  • If you’re interested in collaboration, or consulting on bioimaging analysis projects, I’d love to connect.🙂

Contact

Professional Experience

  • Imaging Core Facility, Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology (ICOB), Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • R&D Scientist (Jan 2024 - Present)
  • Project Scientist (Oct 2021 - Dec 2023)
  • Research Technical Employee (Sep 2021)

  • Postdocroal Researcher (May 2021- Aug 2021)

  • RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR), Japan

  • Research Scientist (Sep 2017 - Mar 2021)
  • Visiting Scientist (Oct 2016 - Sep 2017)
    Supported by Postdoctoral Research Abroad Program, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
  • Research Scientist (Jul 2015 - Sep 2016)

Education

  • Ph.D., Life Science
    Graduate Institute of Life Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan
  • Master's, Life Science
    Department of Life Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
  • Bachelor's, Life Science
    Department of Life Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan

Core Skills

  • Confocal Microscopy/ Fluorescence microscopy
  • Immunofluorescence, fluorescence protein tagging
  • Bio-Image processing and analysis using FIJI/ ImageJ, Napari and Imaris
  • GPU-accelerated image processing libraries (CLIJ series in FIJI, clEsperanto in Python)
  • Developing custom image processing and analysis workflows using ImageJ Macro or Python

Member Association

Honors & Awards

  • Outstanding Employee (中央研究院工作績優人員), Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • Drosophila Image Award 2022: Honorable Mention
  • RIKEN Incentive Project FY2018
  • Postdoctoral Research Abroad Program 2016, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Attended Bioimage Analysis Training Course

Organizing Bioimage Analysis Traing Event

Open-Source Training Materials

Open-Source Bioimaging Analysis Workflow / Tools

  • central-nuclei-muscle-analyzer
    A comprehensive ImageJ macro for automated analysis of nuclear localization in muscle cross-sectional areas, specifically designed to identify and quantify central nuclei in muscle fibers.

  • IJ_Hot_LUTs_palette
    This repository provides color palettes (.pal files) for Imaris, with a special focus on the popular "Hot" series of Look-Up Tables (LUTs) from ImageJ/Fiji. These LUTs are excellent for visualization.

Publications

  • Santoso, F., De Leon, M.P., Kao, W.C., Chu, W.C., Roan, H.Y., Lee, G.H., Tang, M.J., Cheng, J.Y., and Chen, C.H. (2024). Appendage-resident epithelial cells expedite wound healing response in adult zebrafish. Curr Biol 34, 3603-3615.e3604. 10.1016/j.cub.2024.06.051.
    Source Code: https://github.com/WeiChenChu/Cell_Dist_Mesh_Generator

  • Chu, W.C., Hayashi S. (2021) Mechano-chemical enforcement of tendon apical ECM into nano-filaments during Drosophila flight muscle development. Curr. Biol. 31, 1366–1378 (Commented in Curr. Biol. 31, R330–R358)

  • Yeh, P.A., Liu Y.H., Chu W.C., Liu J.Y., Sun Y.H. (2018) Glial expression of disease-associated poly-glutamine proteins impairs the blood–brain barrier in Drosophila. Hum. Mol. Genet. 27, 2546-2562

  • Chu, W.C., Lee Y.M., Sun Y.H. (2013) FGF /FGFR signal induces trachea extension in the Drosophila visual system. PLOS ONE 8, e73878