English

James Cheng-Chung Wei, M.D.,PhD. FACR.      

Chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology

Director, Chinese Medicine Clinical Trial Center
Associate professor, Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University.

Graduate Institute of Integrated Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Dr James Cheng-Chung Wei, is an attending physician and assistant professor of Chung Shan medical university. After his training of rheumatology and clinical immunology at Taichung and Kaoshuing veterans general hospital, he went to Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) for clinical fellowship under Dr Andrei Calin, the world’s famous master in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in 2000. In 2001, he went to UCLA rheumatology department as a research fellowship under Dr David Yu to investigate the pathogenesis of spondyloarthropathy. Before present position, he was the chief of family medicine department of Chia Yi veterans hospital. He organized the ankylosing spondylitis caring society in Taiwan and had been the president of the society. He got his PhD degree in 2006 studying epidemiology and pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis.

Dr Wei’s research interests included clinical and basic researches in ankylosing spondylitis. He conducted the first HLA-B27 subtyping study. He also first observed the association of AS with HLA-B60 and B61. In 2003, he published a pilot clinical trial on thalidomide in AS patients. In 2007, he set up a comprehensive databank of ankylosing spondylitis in Taiwan for more than 2000 samples. In 2008, he published association of MMP-3 and TIMP SNP in Taiwanese patients with AS. Dr Wei and his colleagues are also studying the pathogenesis of AS, focusing on the overload endoplasmic reticulum stress of HLA-B27, cross-reaction between autoantigen and microbials.

In the past 5 years, he had completed more than 20 clinical trials in the treatment of SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, hyperuricemia, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He is also member of the American Clinical Research Professional (ACRP) and American Collage of Rheumatology (ACR). Recently, he is engaged in the setup of general clinical trial center (GCRC) in Chung Shan medical university hospital and was the director of the GCRC now.  He also chaired the Institutional Review Board & Ethic Committee of Chung Shan medical university hospital in 2005. He is now the director of clinical trial center and chief of Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology in Chung Shan Medical University hospital.