Bio
The major research interest in the Chen Laboratory is to manipulate stem cell fate using chemical and biological approaches and to generate functional tissues and organs that can be used for translational research. Our current main focus is on human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We combine our knowledge of stem cell biology, developmental biology, chemical biology, medicine chemistry and tissue engineering to derive functional cells, tissues and organs from human pluripotent stem cells. Our long-term goal is to apply patient specific PSC-derived tissues or organs for replacement therapy and build up “disease in a dish” platforms for drug discovery.