Dr. Chen is an internationally recognized expert in biological data mining, systems biology, and translational bioinformatics. He received his Bachelor of Science from Peking University in Beijing, China and completed his master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities, Minnesota. Dr. Chen joined the UAB Informatics Institute in 2016 as the Chief Bioinformatics Officer and Assistant Director of the Institute. He currently holds full tenured professorship positions with the Departments of Genetics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at UAB.In 2019, he was named as one of the world’s 100 AI Leaders in Drug Discovery & Healthcare, by Deep Knowledge Analytics. Before joining UAB, he held tenured faculty positions at Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing and Purdue University Computer and Information Science Department. He currently serves on the editorial boards of BMC Systems Biology, Personalized Medicine, and Network Biology, and grant review panels invited by NIH, NSF, DOE, and DOD. His research focuses on building biomolecular systems models from biomedical big data, thus helping understand, simulate, and predict complex disease biology outcomes.
As the Chief Bioinformatics Officer at UAB Informatics Institute, he oversees the development and execution of informatics strategic plans that enhance bioinformatics research, service, training, and outreach at UAB Medicine. During his time in Indiana, he founded the Indiana Center for Systems Biology and Personalized Medicine in 2007, and subsequently the Zhejiang Institute of Biopharmaceutical Informatics and Technologies in Wenzhou, China to pursue translational bioinformatics through regional and international collaborations. He maintains an active role in the Zhejiang Institute of Biopharmaceutical Informatics and Technologies as a visiting professor. Before going to Indiana, he worked as a bioinformatics computer scientist at Affymetrix in the Silicon Valley and a proteomics company in Salt Lake City to develop late-breaking DNA microarray and proteomics technologies. He was cited by HealthTechTopia as one of the “17 Informatics Experts Worth Listening To” in 2011. In 2012, he led his lab to receive a “Cancer Systems Biology Grand Challenge Award” by Innocentive.com among over a thousand contenders. In 2013-15, he was honored three times as an “Indiana Technology Educator of the Year” MIRA Award finalist, for his contribution to informatics research, education, and regional outreach.