Assistant Professor
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
The main goal of the Chen lab is to understand molecular mechanisms regulating mammalian early development with two specific focuses: 1) chromatin dynamics and functions in preimplantation development, and 2) regulations and functions of retrotransposons during zygotic genome activation (ZGA). My broad training background in epigenetics, bioinformatics, and developmental biology makes my lab in a unique position to answer these fundamental questions. As a graduate student at University of Missouri-Columbia, I investigated genomic imprinting in fetal overgrowth syndromes using integrative approaches including molecular techniques and epigenomic analyses. As a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, I focused on understanding mechanisms of the maternal H3K27me3-dependent non-canonical genomic imprinting. During this period, I also characterized roles of chromatin remodelers (i.e., SNF2H), transcription factors (i.e., DUX/DPPA2/DPPA4), transcription co-activators (P300/CBP), and Polycomb group proteins (i.e., EED/RING1B/BAP1) in several biological processes such as oogenesis, retrotransposon regulation, zygotic genome activation (ZGA), and X chromosome inactivation. All the Postdoc work involve mouse embryo manipulation, ultra-low input epigenomic profiling and bioinformatic analyses. As a result of these research experiences, I have established my track record of performing highly impactful and original research.