Yu-Chieh David Chen, a new assistant professor in the Department of Biology, earned his PhD in neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at National Taiwan University.
Before coming to CST, Chen was a postdoctoral researcher at New York University. At NYU, his research, which was published in PNAS and STAR Protocols, leveraged single-cell genomics to create genetic tools that target specific cell types during development. This work laid the groundwork for his lab at Temple to investigate the molecular regulators governing neuronal circuit assembly.
At the heart of your research, what is the big question you are trying to answer?
I am a developmental neurobiologist, and I aim to understand how the brain develops and builds itself. Think of it like a computer chip, where every component has a different shape and size, and each one must be connected to the right partner for the system to function properly.
Our brains are even more complex, with about 86 billion neurons of many different types and shapes. The big question I am trying to answer in my lab is: how do these neurons find the right partners and connect with each other during development to form precise, functional circuits? This is one of the central challenges in developmental neuroscience.
How do you go about trying to find those answers?
I am a strong believer that simplicity is the key to addressing big biological questions. Rather than starting with animals that have very complex brains, I study a powerful genetic model organism called Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly.
Even though fruit flies are tiny, the basic principles and molecular “rules” for how their brain circuits are wired are remarkably similar to those in more complex animals, including humans. By studying flies, we can uncover these fundamental rules more quickly and clearly, and the insights we gain often apply across species. This means that what we learn about brain wiring in flies can help us better understand how the human brain develops and what might go wrong in neurological disorders.
What unique approaches do you bring to your research, and how do they set you apart in your field?
Fruit flies have been an amazing model for studying how the brain works, but one major challenge has been the lack of tools to label and target specific neurons throughout the development.
My recent work has generated a toolkit that allows us to precisely target and manipulate any neuron type we are interested in, from the very earliest stages of development all the way to adulthood. This is powerful because it lets us watch how individual neurons grow, connect and maintain those connections over time. With this approach, we can uncover the “rules” that neurons follow to wire up correctly, a perspective that has been very difficult to achieve until now.
How do you plan to involve students in your research?
There will be many opportunities for undergraduate students to actively participate in my lab’s research. One of the best examples is our genetic tool development project. By creating tools that label developing neurons, students can directly contribute to how we study brain development. I plan to continue building a large collection of split-GAL4 lines, genetic tools that let us label very specific neurons and manipulate their gene expressions. These projects are perfect for students because they are hands-on, highly teachable, and produce results that benefit the whole neuroscience community.
During my postdoc, I led a team of seven undergraduates who helped streamline this process, and together we published a “STAR Protocols” paper describing the method. Using this approach, we can convert fly lines for nearly 3,000 genes into gene-specific genetic tools, opening the door to many collaborations. Students in my lab will not only learn valuable genetics and molecular biology techniques but also get the experience of contributing to published work and large-scale community resources.
Are there specific faculty collaborations you're excited to explore here at CST?
Yes! I am very excited about several potential collaborations at CST. Our department has a strong group of evolutionary genomics researchers, and I would love to bring my developmental neuroscience expertise into that context, essentially connecting how the brain builds itself with how it has evolved over time. This kind of “evo-devo” research could give us new insights into how nervous systems adapt and diversify across species.
I am also looking forward to interacting with Weidong Yang’s lab in the Biology Department, who specializes in super-resolution microscopy. By combining my cell-type-specific genetic tools with advanced live imaging, we could watch neurons grow and connect at incredibly high resolution, revealing new details about how they mature and form circuits.
How do you plan to engage with the local community?
I am deeply committed to building an inclusive scientific community. Throughout my training, I have mentored students from underrepresented backgrounds, guided them through research projects and helped them present their work at national conferences.
At Temple, I plan to continue this work by collaborating with programs like CST’s Research Scholar Program. My goal is to create opportunities for students from all backgrounds to gain hands-on research experience and grow their confidence in science.
Beyond the university, I look forward to working with local schools and outreach programs to inspire the next generation of scientists, showing them how basic research in fruit flies can reveal insights into brain health and disease.
Tiny flies, big impact!
In what ways do you hope your research will contribute to society?
The tools developed in my lab can be used to study many different parts of the fly, not just the brain, making them a powerful resource for researchers worldwide. I have already seen how this approach can spark collaborations. For example, with scientists at Columbia, Penn, Duke, and the University of Toulouse, we have made discoveries that none of us could have made alone.
By making these tools widely available, I hope to accelerate discoveries across neuroscience and related fields. In the long run, a better understanding of how the brain wires itself could shed light on developmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and even inspire new ways to repair or rewire the brain when it is injured.
What inspired you to pursue a career in science?
At my core, I am driven by curiosity. I have always wanted to know how things work, especially something as complex and beautiful as the brain. My mission as a scientist in the lab is to uncover how developing neurons acquire their unique features and connect to form functional circuits, which ultimately allow us to see, taste, move, and think.
But my motivation goes beyond the science itself. I see my career as an opportunity to train and inspire the next generation of neurobiologists. I want to create a lab where students and trainees can achieve their goals, whether they choose careers in academia, industry or beyond. Our lab values guide everything we do: we combine hypothesis-driven and discovery-driven research, hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity, collaborate openly and support one another’s growth. We celebrate diversity, respect every perspective and approach science with curiosity and joy.
To me, this is what makes science meaningful, not just finding answers, but growing as a community along the way.
What's one quirky or offbeat topic that you're particularly passionate about?
I love thinking about why fruit flies do the funny little things they do, like chasing each other, dancing during courtship, or avoiding certain smells. These tiny behaviors might look quirky, but they are actually windows into how the brain processes information and makes decisions.
Outside of research, I am also fascinated by how science is communicated through art and storytelling. I enjoy finding creative ways to share my work, whether that’s through outreach talks, or mentoring students to turn their projects into engaging stories. Science can be serious, but it should also be fun and spark curiosity.