Honors and Awards Dean’s Catalyst Award, 2018 Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2011 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2000

Prof. Chen’s laboratory seeks to understand how cells interact with their environment, and to use this knowledge to control cell function. In particular, Prof. Chen is studying the cooperation between adhesive, mechanical and biochemical signaling in the regulation of angiogenesis and stem cell biology. To probe these questions in novel ways, Chen’s laboratory has developed a repertoire of unique micro- and nanofabrication tools to control and measure the adhesive and mechanical environment of cells. Using these tools in combination with traditional molecular approaches, Chen’s lab is investigating numerous regulatory interactions between mechanical forces and biochemical signaling, and between integrin-, cadherin-, and growth factor-mediated signaling. Chen’s research program thus focuses on both the integration of novel devices, manipulation strategies, and materials with modern molecular tools, as well as the pursuit of a deeper understanding of the regulation of stem cells and endothelial cells. At this interface between technology, cell biology, and medicine, Chen and his lab’s mission is to provide new tools for biomedicine, to gain new insights into the control of cell function, to train multi-disciplinary scientists undeterred by disciplinary boundaries, and to demonstrate the boundless opportunities for impacting the future of research and education.