Academic Affiliation
Department of Applied Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences
Credentials
PhD, University of Arizona
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Minnesota
Bio
Qiang “Shawn” Chen, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Center for Infectious Diseases at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. He, and his laboratory, focus on two areas of basic plant biology research: gene expression and protein trafficking.
Specifically, Dr. Chen’s interest in gene expression includes how these expressions are controlled in plants at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. He seeks to identify and characterize new genetic elements that control gene expression. And he researches the regulation and mechanism of protein post-translational modification and assembly. Dr. Chen wants to apply this knowledge to plant biotechnology, specifically, to express and produce human pharmaceuticals in transgenic plants.
As part of his interest in plant biotechnology, Dr. Chen is working to optimize the expression and assembly of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and to design novel mAb fusion proteins to enhance their targeting and efficacy.
Dr. Chen’s second research focus is on applied protein chemistry. He is intent on developing innovative protein purification technologies for purifying human therapeutics from transgenic plants. In his capacity as a key faculty of ASU’s Plant Bioengineer Center, he mentors scientists on how to perform protein chemistry under FDA’s current Good Manufacture Practice (cGMP) regulations.
Prior to joining ASU, Dr. Chen was the director of division of protein chemistry at Cardinal Health.
Dr. Chen obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Arizona. He was a PMGI and NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Chen spent more than 10 years in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry directing molecular biology and biochemistry research in both plant and mammalian cell culture systems.