Xi Chen

Dr. Chen Xi received a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2005, and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. Chen’s doctoral research, in the lab of Dr. Andy Ellington, focused on the static and dynamic structure and function of ssDNA and ssRNA molecules such as aptamers, as well as their functions in cells and their applications as computational devices. Following this, Dr. Chen conducted postdoctoral research in DNA nanotechnology in the lab of Dr. Peng Yin at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and was awarded the prestigious Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship. After that, Dr. Chen joined Ultivue, Inc, a life science start-up company. He later participated in the founding and joined Nest.bio Ventures, leading multiple investment and internal incubation projects. In 2017, Dr. Chen participated in the founding of RootPath and served as CEO. Despite spending most of his time in industry, Dr. Chen published over 20 academic papers in top journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Chemistry, PNAS, JACS, and Angewandte Chemie, as first author, corresponding author, or single author.