Graduate Institute of Natural Products (Master's & Ph.D. Program)

Teaching

1. Train natural product researchers in professional knowledge and skills relevant to natural products and to inspire students to think and research independently.
2. Create an international academic research environment. Through academic exchanges of international scholars, students are able to improve and expand their global perspectives. Currently, dual doctoral programs are available with the University of Szeged in Hungary, Uppsala University in Sweden, and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.
3. Develop cooperation with industries and improve learning to ensure students’ competitiveness and to meet the needs of the biotechnology industry in Taiwan.

Research

1. The teaching faculty of the Graduate Institute of Natural Products (GINP) has an outstanding research record with many high-quality research articles published in international academic journals and funding from governmental and other institutions.
2. The research interests of the GINP include extraction and identification of the chemical composition and active ingredients in natural products; research of bioactivity of natural products, especially in regard to anticancer, antivirus, liver protection, free radical scavenging, and antithrombotic effects; synthetic designs and research of the derivatives from natural lead compounds; combination of genomics and proteomics for studying natural products; modernization, and translation of research into traditional Chinese and herbal medicines.
3. The GINP provides a wide range of research equipment including a 400MHz NMR spectrometer; basic extraction equipment; medium to high performance liquid chromatography; centrifugal evaporator; inverted fluorescence microscope and image system; enzyme immunoassay analyzer; fluorescence and luminescence analyzer; platelet aggregometer; blood cell analyzer; PCR and real-time PCR machines; cell culture equipment including a P2 lab for pathogens research.

Course Features

The required and elective courses of the GINP are all related to natural products research and follow the latest trends.

1. The courses of the Master’s program include basic knowledge (pharmaceutical ethics, pharmacognosy, herbology) and practical skills training in the field of natural products chemistry (instrumental techniques, spectroscopy, and separation techniques) and natural products biology (bioassay and molecular biology).
2. Included in the Ph.D. program are advanced courses on natural products chemistry and biology, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology and cancer research. In recent years, the institute has placed a heavier emphasis on industry and career-related courses.