ASTRA 2025

Ruby Huang

Invited Speaker, National Taiwan University

Career and Experience?
Professor Ruby Huang obtained her MD degree from National Taiwan University (NTU) in and Obs & Gyn board in 2003. She obtained her PhD degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology from NTU in 2008 and subsequently moved to Singapore and worked in A*STAR, NUH and NUS. She was recruited back to NTU in 2019 under the Yushan Fellow Program supported by the Ministry of Education (Taiwan). Currently, Prof. Huang is a Obs & Gyn specialist at NTU Cancer Center (NTUCC), and is a Professor in College of Medicine, College of Engineering, International College, and D-School at the National Taiwan University. Prof. Huang is also Visiting Professor in University of Tokyo, National University of Singpoare, and Kumamoto University. She is a Yushan Young Fellow leading the EMPreSS (Epithelial Mesenchyaml Precision Scoring Scheme) Lab. Prof. Huang is the 2025-2026 Vice President of TEMTIA, The EMT International Association.

Academic Achievements?
Professor Ruby Huang is a renowned physician scientist in the international ovarian cancer (OC) research and EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) fields with a research interest in cellular plasticity. In the field of EMT, she is best known to define the early events of EMT and to propose the paradigm shift of the EMT concept from binary to a continuous spectrum. Her group establishes the pan-cancer EMT signatures and defines EMT scoring. She utilizes OC as the working model to decipher the role of EMT spectrum in tumoral heterogeneity focusing on the transcription function of pioneer factors and the regulation at the 3D genome level. She is also the main contributor of the two seminal Cell review articles in EMT, which has accumulated citations up to 16,000+ times. In OC, she co-discovers the presence of five gene expression molecular subtypes (GEMS) that exhibit different epithelial/mesenchymal characteristics, therapuetic sensitivity, and identifies the dominant signaling pathways in each OC subtype. Her group further deciphers the intra-tumoral heterogeneity in OC by using deconvolution methods such as the Molecular Assessment of Subtype Heterogeneity (MASH) scheme and spatial omics profiling. Her recent work focuses on ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC), an OC subtype with Asian significance, leading to the identification of epithelial/mesenchymal GEMS, the immune-related gene expression, and distinct spatial profiles in OCCC. As a pioneer of spatial omics research in the Asia Pacific region, Prof. Huang serves as the founding faculty of the Center of Excellence for Singel cell and Spatial Genomics in NTUCC in collaboration with with 10x Genomics and YongLin Foundation. Prof. Ruby Huang launched Asia’s first gen ed course on menstruation that covers interdisciplinary knowledge about periods, period equality, and period poverty. An award-winning course, "Period: Theory, Thoughts, and Actions" focuses on the female reproductive cycle and its humanity impacts on culture, society, law, and economic development from multi-disciplinary perspectives and collaborates with non-government organizations advocating against period poverty and period stigma.