The Chen Lab welcomes Ashley Medina as our newest lab technician! Ashley joins us with hands-on Drosophila experience and plans to pursue a neuroscience PhD in the future. We're excited to have her on the team.

Our collaborative work on cell-surface recognition molecules in Drosophila olfactory circuits is out in PLoS Biology. Beat- and Side-family proteins are expressed combinatorially in partner neurons — a key piece of the circuit assembly puzzle.

Our collaborative study dissecting the transcriptional regulatory logic underlying neuronal differentiation in the Drosophila visual system is out in PNAS.

The Chen Lab welcomes our Leica SP8 White Light Laser confocal microscope to the lab! A major addition to our imaging capabilities.

The Chen lab has received the Notice of Award for David’s NIH R00 grant from NEI!

Previously mentored by David during his time at NYU, Maisha has committed to Albany Medical College and will be starting her MD program this summer.

At this week-long training, Ariel will develop hands-on expertise in open-source image analysis tools and decision-making strategies for light microscopy data.

This one-year, $100,000 award supports bold and transformative research, and will fund the development of our RNA-based split-GAL4 tool in Drosophila.

Katelyn has accepted a position as a Patient Coordinator at Jefferson Health and will pursue a Master of Healthcare Administration at Thomas Jefferson University.

Welcome aboard, Ariel Kuan!

Dr. Yun Ding from the University of Pennsylvania held a dynamic talk and conversation for our departmental seminar!

The competitive CARAS grant will allow Anastacia to research neuronal development of the visual system this summer. Congrats!

This research support will allow Riya to explore the generation of split GAL-4 lines in the Chen Lab. Looking forward to it!

Chen Lab was well represented at the 2026 Spring Undergraduate Research and Leadership Symposium and the Biology Research Showcase by Katelyn Porrecca and Anastacia Orekhova!

PI Dr. David Chen’s former NYU mentee, Nathalie Shoji, has been accepted into the MD-PhD program at Mount Sinai! Congrats Nathalie!

Lab tours and scientist introductions were had in the Chen Lab as PI Dr. David Chen led the neuroscience section at the Biology Open Lab event!

Dr. Tim Mosca presented a lively talk and conversation for a departmental seminar! Thank you Dr. Mosca!

Quick trip to Japan! PI Dr. David Chen gave talks and visited three different institutions in Tokyo, Japan.