Dr. Chen received her undergraduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1990. As an undergraduate, Dr. Chen worked in the laboratory of Nobel laureate, Hamilton Smith at the JHU School of Medicine investigating mechanisms of DNA transformation by Haemophilus Influenza A. Dr. Chen stayed on at the Johns Hopkins University for graduate school, completing her Ph.D. thesis on the role of C. elegans MyoD in muscle development with Nobel laureate, Andrew Fire, at the Carnegie Institute of Washington in 1997. Dr. Chen then completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Vann Bennett, a Howard Hughes Investigator at the Duke University School of Medicine where she developed C. elegans as a genetic system to study the roles and mechanisms of action of L1CAMs, ankyrins, and the spectrin-actin cytoskeleton. In 2002, Dr. Chen joined the University of Minnesota as assistant professor in the Dept. of Genetics, Cell Biology & Development where she continues her work on L1CAMs in nervous system development and function.

Investigating L1CAM roles in mediating axon guidance and maintaining neural integrity, we are currently examining a novel L1CAM role in synaptic modulation.