Chinfei Chen

Chinfei Chen, MD, PhD

Research Associate in Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital; Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School.

Research Focus

Neurobiology; synaptic and circuit plasticity in neurodevelopment disorders.

Brief Research Description

The Chen laboratory studies the mechanisms that underlie synaptic and circuit plasticity in the developing and mature mammalian brain. We are particularly interested in the thalamus, a subcortical region that receives information from the external world and other brain areas encoding emotional and brain state. We use a combination of electrophysiological and optical imaging tools, genetically altered mice, optogenetics and pharmacogenetics to examine how experience changes synaptic circuits and the flow of information from thalamus to cortex. We also study how disruption of proper thalamic circuit development may lead to aberrant information processing and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Key Publications (PMCIDs)

Visual Experience-Dependent Expression of Fn14 Is Required for Retinogeniculate Refinement.
Cheadle L, Tzeng CP, Kalish BT, Harmin DA, Rivera S, Ling E, Nagy MA, Hrvatin S, Hu L, Stroud H, Burkly LC, Chen C, Greenberg ME.
Neuron 2018;99(3):525-39 e10. PMCID: PMC6101651

A Fine-Scale Functional Logic to Convergence from Retina to Thalamus.
Liang L, Fratzl A, Goldey G, Ramesh RN, Sugden AU, Morgan JL, Chen C, Andermann ML.
Cell 2018;173(6):1343-55 e24. PMCID: PMC6003778

Functional Convergence at the Retinogeniculate Synapse.
Litvina EY, Chen C.
Neuron 2017;96(2):330-8 e5. PMCID: PMC5726778

Cortical Feedback Regulates Feedforward Retinogeniculate Refinement.
Thompson AD, Picard N, Min L, Fagiolini M, Chen C.
Neuron. 2016 Sep 7;91(5):1021-1033. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.07.040. Epub 2016 Aug 18. PMID: 27545712; PMCID: PMC5156570

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