Julie Chen

About Julie Chen

Julie Chen grew up in Salem, Oregon as the child of immigrants from Shanghai and Tianmen, Hubei in China. Growing up, her parents spent weekends teaching Julie and her three siblings Chinese and working on math puzzles instilling in her a deep appreciation for family and education.

As an undergraduate at Stanford, Julie got her first taste of scientific research when she joined a lab studying biology of the lysosome, organelles primarily known for their function as cellular “recycling machines.” Under the mentorship of Monther Abu-Remaileh and Uche Medoh, Julie helped to biochemically characterize a protein-lipid binding interaction that ultimately helped elucidate the molecular function of a protein implicated in Batten disease, a deadly childhood neurodegenerative disease. Julie fell in love with the scientific process of iteratively generating and revising hypotheses and relished the space to ask questions about anything and everything.

To complement her training as a wet-lab scientist, Julie pursued a degree in computer science and worked with Pranav Rajpurkar and David Kim to develop machine learning methods for the emergency department. Subsequently, Julie applied for and received a $180,000 grant for early-career scientists through the New Science Fellowship, for a research project conceived, proposed and executed fully independently. Under the mentorship of Vadim Gladyshev, she explored the relationship between DNA methylation and biological aging. Julie’s work on aging reinforced her fascination with studying complex biological systems and the regulation of cell fates. With the mentorship of Kyle Loh and Sherry Zheng, Julie developed a novel method to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into putative umbilical cord progenitors. Julie used this in vitro system to understand when and how cells decide to become umbilical cord vs other tissues like the heart.

Julie plans to pursue a PhD in cellular and developmental biology. She seeks to uncover mechanisms of cellular decision-making during development and to eventually apply these insights to improve human health through regenerative medicine. Julie’s work has been recognized by the Barry Goldwater scholarship and has been published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals.