Chen cao
Assistant Professor
Chen.Cao@UTDallas.edu
Phone: N/A
Office: BSB 13.637
800 West Campbell Rd.
Richardson, TX 75080-3021
Education
Ph.D. in Biophysics, Peking University, 2016
M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Southeast University, China, 2011
B.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Southeast University, China, 2008
Overview
Dr. Cao is a bioengineer and developmental biology researcher. She earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from Peking University, along with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Southeast University in China. Dr. Cao completed her postdoctoral training in developmental biology at the Lewis-Sigler Institute of Integrative Genomics in Princeton, where she contributed significant efforts to cell lineage reconstruction with single-cell sequencing technology and the novel cell type evolution in the Ciona nervous system. Dr. Cao was awarded Pathway to Independence Awards (K99/R00) by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and was recruited to UT Dallas as the First-Time Tenure Track member by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
The Cao Lab utilizes and develops cutting-edge single cell omics, imaging and microfluidics tools to investigate on lineages commitment, cell type evolution and cell-cell interactions (e.g. Cao et al., Nature 2019; Lemaire et al., Science Advances, 2021; Chen et al., Plos Biology, 2022). Her research aims to elucidate the gene regulatory grammar in embryogenesis and cancer development.
Research Interests
Single-cell sequencing, bioinformatics, developmental biology, cancer evolution, microfluidics, imaging.