Chen received her BS in Biology from Peking University in China and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Rice University. She completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Chen is a professor of cell and developmental biology and biomedical and translational sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also an Affiliate at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and a mentor for the CCIL TiME program.
