Researcher | Research Background
Cidi Chen, PhD, Assistant Director Human Neuron Core joined the Human Neuron Core to lead the Human Neuron iPSC CRISPR genomic editing Service. Dr. Chen is an expert in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Dr. Chen received his PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied the structure-function of a detoxification enzyme Cytochrome P450. Dr. Chen received post-doctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute and University of Minnesota. There he discovered the proteases responsible for initiating the neurological amyloid disease, Amyloidosis Finnish type, and worked on age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Chen became a Research Assistant Professor and then Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Boston University where he studied normal brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and developed new therapeutic strategies to enhance the levels of the anti-aging protein Klotho using CRISPR technology, Zinc Finger Protein, and non-coding RNA regulation. Since joining the core, Dr. Chen is working on developing and implementing CRISPR genomic editing protocols for patient derived iPSCs.
Related publications: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.09.018