Lanfen Chen
Xiamen University
China
Dr. Lanfen Chen is currently a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University. She obtained her BS and MS at Xiamen University, Xiamen, China at 1997 and 2000 respectively, and her Ph.D at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, US, at 2006. She was a Research Fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, US (2007-2012) and became a principal investigator at the School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University since July 2012. The Hippo pathway has emerged as a critical developmental pathway contributing to processes that regulate tissue growth and organ size. Recently, numerus studies indicate that Hippo signaling plays an important role in regulating the immune function in both Drosophila and mammals. In particular, patients bearing a loss-of-function mutation of Mst1, which is the mammalian ortholog of the “hippo” kinase, are reported to have an autosomal recessive primary immunodeficiency syndrome. Dr. Chen’s research group aims to characterize the regulation and physiologic functions of the Mst1 and Mst2 kinases in the immune system.