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Irene A. Chen

· PhD

University of California, Los Angeles · Chemistry and Biochemistry

Active 1955–2026

h-index47
Citations10.8k
Papers18676 last 5y
Funding$27.5M1 active

Academic metrics are sourced from OpenAlex and public funding records; values may differ from Google Scholar.

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About

Irene A. Chen is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and also holds a position in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her laboratory studies life-like biochemical systems to understand their fundamental properties and address emerging challenges in biotechnology and infectious disease. Her research encompasses the development and analysis of biochemical systems, including the design of antibacterial agents, antimicrobial polymers, and engineered phages, as well as the investigation of prebiotic chemistry, ribozyme evolution, and the origins of life. She has contributed to understanding the properties of RNA, the evolution of catalytic RNA, and the application of phage engineering in antimicrobial therapy. Her work integrates biochemistry, biophysics, microbiology, and nanotechnology to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying biological systems and their potential applications.

Research topics

  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Chemistry
  • Materials science
  • Genetics
  • Biochemistry
  • Computational biology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Combinatorics
  • Cell biology

Selected publications

  • Controlled phage therapy by photothermal ablation of specific bacterial species using gold nanorods targeted by chimeric phages

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 151 citations

    Senior authorCorresponding

    biofilm, in which phanorod irradiation killed bacterial cells while causing minimal damage to epithelial cells. Local temperature and viscosity measurements revealed highly localized and selective ablation of the bacteria. Irradiation of the phanorods also destroyed the phages, preventing replication and reducing potential risks of traditional phage therapy while enabling control over dosing. The phanorod strategy integrates the highly evolved targeting strategies of phages with the photothermal…

    DOI

  • Microbial predictors of healing and short-term effect of debridement on the microbiome of chronic wounds

    npj Biofilms and Microbiomes · 2020-05-01 · 145 citations

    articleOpen accessSenior author

    Chronic wounds represent a large and growing disease burden. Infection and biofilm formation are two of the leading impediments of wound healing, suggesting an important role for the microbiome of these wounds. Debridement is a common and effective treatment for chronic wounds. We analyzed the bacterial content of the wound surface from 20 outpatients with chronic wounds before and immediately after debridement, as well as healthy skin. Given the large variation observed among different wounds,…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • Engineering Phages to Fight Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

    Chemical Reviews · 2024-12-16 · 79 citations

    reviewOpen accessCorresponding

    Facing the global "superbug" crisis due to the emergence and selection for antibiotic resistance, phages are among the most promising solutions. Fighting multidrug-resistant bacteria requires precise diagnosis of bacterial pathogens and specific cell-killing. Phages have several potential advantages over conventional antibacterial agents such as host specificity, self-amplification, easy production, low toxicity as well as biofilm degradation. However, the narrow host range, uncharacterized prop…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • Self-cleaving ribozymes: substrate specificity and synthetic biology applications

    RSC Chemical Biology · 2021 · 46 citations

    Senior authorCorresponding

    Various self-cleaving ribozymes appearing in nature catalyze the sequence-specific intramolecular cleavage of RNA and can be engineered to catalyze cleavage of appropriate substrates in an intermolecular fashion, thus acting as true catalysts. The mechanisms of the small, self-cleaving ribozymes have been extensively studied and reviewed previously. Self-cleaving ribozymes can possess high catalytic activity and high substrate specificity; however, substrate specificity is also engineerable with…

    DOI

  • PacBio sequencing output increased through uniform and directional fivefold concatenation

    Scientific Reports · 2021 · 38 citations

    Advances in sequencing technology have allowed researchers to sequence DNA with greater ease and at decreasing costs. Main developments have focused on either sequencing many short sequences or fewer large sequences. Methods for sequencing mid-sized sequences of 600-5,000 bp are currently less efficient. For example, the PacBio Sequel I system yields ~ 100,000-300,000 reads with an accuracy per base pair of 90-99%. We sought to sequence several DNA populations of ~ 870 bp in length with a sequen…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

Frequent coauthors

Education

  • Ph.D., Biophysics

    Harvard University

    2007

  • M.D.

    Harvard Medical School

    2007

  • A.B., Chemistry

    Harvard University

    1999

Awards & honors

  • Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2018 - 2023)
  • Simons Investigator, Collaboration on the Origins of Life (2…
  • NIH New Innovator Award (2016 - 2021)
  • Searle Scholar Award (2014 - 2017)

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