Yupeng Chen's Biography

Yupeng Chen, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut

Dr. Yupeng Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of Connecticut. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and chemistry from Brown University. Dr. Chen has a long-term interest in designing and developing DNA-inspired Janus base nanomaterials for regenerative engineering applications. He is an inventor of 10 US patents and 14 international patents related to the Janus base nanotechnology. Some of these patents have been successfully licensed to industry. To date, Dr. Chen has published one book, nine book chapters and 63 peer-reviewed publications. He and his lab have delivered 107 conference presentations and invited talks. Dr. Chen is a recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from NSF, the discovery award from DOD and the grand prize of the New Investigator Recognition Awards from the Orthopaedic Research Society (top one winner among 545 worldwide candidates). Dr. Chen has been elected as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) as a recognition of his effort in translating scientific breakthroughs into real-life applications. Dr. Chen frequently serves as a reviewer on multiple NIH and NSF panels and conducts review and/or editorial work for 31 journals. Dr. Chen has received many competitive federal research grants from NIH, NSF, NASA, DOD and CASIS. Most recently, Dr. Chen has pushed the boundary of regenerative engineering research from Earth to space: Dr. Chen is funded to develop and evaluate Janus base nanomaterials on the International Space Station (ISS) for in-space tissue engineering, biofabrication, and biotherapeutics.