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I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my graduate advisor Dr. Ding Shih, for his remarkable mentorship. He treated me more as a family than a student. I respect him for his honesty, his enthusiasm in science and work, his always welcoming attitude for discussion, and his excellent guidance throughout my graduate studies. I would like to thank my committee member, Drs. Sue Bartlett, Patrick DiMario, and Anne Grove for guiding me with their expertise, always welcoming attitude and providing access to their lab equipment and reagents. I would like to thank Dr. Raymond Schneider and Dr. Zhi-Yuan Chen for kindly serving on my committee. I also want to extend my gratitude to Dr. Huangen Ding who patiently helped me with the FPLC system time after time, and to Dr. Mark Batzer who generously let me use the real-time PCR machine in their lab and always care about my research progress. Without your help, I would have a hard time finishing my dissertation. I would like to thank Dr. David Boethel for help me finding the financial support. I would like to thank Dr. Charles Johnson and Dr. Barbara Smith for providin