Xiaofen Chen, PhD

Xiao-Fen Chen, Ph.D., is the professor of the Institute of Neuroscience at Xiamen Universtiy, China. Her research focuses on exploring the Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related pathogenic pathways in microglia to inform early diagnosis and therapy. In 2009, Dr. Chen received her Ph.D. at Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences where she used biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology tools to address how telomere and telomerase modulate the replicative aging process in the budding yeast. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Chen performed her postdoctoral work with Dr. Michael Carey at UCLA on mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes. Dr. Chen joined the faculty at Xiamen University in 2012 when it was first reported that a loss-of-function R47H mutation in TREM2 constitutes one of the strongest single allele genetic risk factors for AD. Since then, her research has been focused on dissecting the biological and pathological functions of TREM2 in AD and related dementias. In collaboration with international experts in neurobiology, she has published novel findings in reputed journals including J Exp Med.-2017 and Nat Commun.-2019. She has received several peer-reviewed research grants and has been awarded several international and national honors and awards.