Xing Chen

Ph.D., Professor

Professional Experience

Dr. Xing Chen received his B.S. in chemistry from Tsinghua University in 2002 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from University of California, Berkeley in 2007. After completing his postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Chen joined Peking University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 2010 and was promoted to a tenured Professor in 2016. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Beijing Normal University. His recent awards include Hui Yongzheng Award for Outstanding Achievements in Glycoscience (2024), ACS Horace S. Isbell Award (2021), Xplore Prize (2020), and Tan Kah Kee Young Scientist Award (2020).

Research Interest

The integration of chemistry and life sciences has opened new avenues for analyzing, understanding, and manipulating biological processes. Among the three major biological macromolecules — nucleic acids, proteins and glycans — glycans are often considered the “dark matter of life”, as their complex physiological and pathological functions remain to be fully elucidated. The research interest of the Xing Chen group focuses on chemical glycobiology, developing chemical tools to decipher the biological information encoded by glycans, known as the glycocode.