Meet the team

 
 

Zhiyuan (ZY) Chen, Ph.D. ZY is an assistant professor in the Division of Developmental Biology and the Reproductive Sciences Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. ZY received his Ph.D. in Animal Sciences at University of Missouri-Columbia, where he studied genomic imprinting and loss-of-imprinting disorders in Dr. Rocío Melissa Rivera’s lab. He performed his postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he studied epigenetic mechanisms in oogenesis and early embryogenesis in Dr. Yi Zhang’s lab. ZY is enthusiastic about gene regulation and developmental biology and is committed to pursuing rigorous and innovative research. ZY is a recipient of a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award.

 
 

Jin-Wen (JW) Kang, Ph.D. Jin-Wen is a research fellow in the Chen lab at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). He obtained his Ph.D. in Basic Veterinary Medicine from South China Agricultural University (SCAU), where he conducted research in Dr. Renwei Su's lab, focusing on uterine development, the molecular mechanisms of uterine regulation in embryo implantation, and the pathogenesis of gynecological and obstetric disorders. Dr. Kang possesses expertise in various techniques, including the development of animal models, embryo transplantation, high-resolution imaging, and cell culture. He has a strong interest in developmental biology and is particularly passionate about the epigenetic regulations of early development. Dr. Kang is enthusiastic about his role at CCHMC and is committed to making significant contributions to scientific research.

 
 
 

Shoko Ichimura, M.S. Shoko completed her MS in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Japan and worked as a clinical pharmacist in Japan for 10 years. Before joining the Chen lab, she worked at Dr. Sushma Reddy’s lab at Stanford University, where she contributed to projects investigating the role of mitochondria dysfunction and capillary disarray in congenital heart disease. After relocating to Cincinnati in August 2024, she started working at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Dr. Mingxia Gu’s lab, where she contributed to a project focused on establishing different types of organoids. She worked in both labs as a lab manager and research assistant, where she honed and utilized her skills in tissue staining and imaging such as electron microscopy, 3-D deep tissue imaging with confocal microscopy, and RNA in situ hybridization.

 

Lauryn Cook, B.S. Lauryn is a research assistant in the Chen lab at CCHMC. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University. During her studies, she was an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Gary Lorigan’s Biophysical Chemistry lab where she studied the KCNE1/KCNQ1 heart membrane proteins and the Tau protein using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR). She was a 2021 Hughes Summer Scholar where she had the opportunity to continue her undergraduate research position full-time. Lauryn is eager to work at CIncinnati Children’s Hospital and use her degree practically to continue her passion for innovative research.

 
 
 
 

Peiyao (Pearl) Liu, B.S. Peiyao is a student of the Biomedical Research Technologies MS Program (BMRT) at CCHMC. She received her bachelor’s degree in Plant Science and Technology from the Huazhong Agricultural University. After graduation, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Pengcheng Bu’s lab as a research assistant at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she received training in cell biology and animal studies. She has broad interests including next-generation sequencing, organogenesis, regenerative medicine, and assisted reproductive technology. In her spare time, she enjoys birdwatching and planting.

Alumni

  • Jian Yang (Research Fellow)

    Current position: research fellow at Columbia University.

  • Neha Gupta (RAII)

    Current position: research assistant at CCHMC