Lab News

[May 13, 2026] The Chen Lab at the departmental retreat!

Special shoutout to Huong for representing the lab to help with organizing the retreat and to Qiqi for winning the best poster presentation award!

[May 12, 2026] New funding!

The NIH has funded a collaborative project between the Mahendroo Lab and the Chen Lab! This grant award will support the molecular understanding of the human cervical epithelium.

[April 30, 2026] Spring lab outing!

Our spring lab outing included a pottery class and a farewell dinner for Claire!

[Dec 17, 2025] Lab holiday dinner!

Saying goodbye to Qianlan and welcoming Claire!

[Sep 17, 2025] Movie time!

Celebrating recent grant, publication, and new lab member with a lab movie outing!

[Aug 6, 2025] New paper alert!

Our focus article previewing a multi-modal single cell genomics technology is now online! Link to the article.

[May 14, 2025] Battling with paintballs!

To celebrate Xin’ incoming baby, Rahil joining the lab, and recent lab publications, we played paintball with our friends from the Gruber Lab!

[May 14, 2025] New paper alert!

Our work on developing a technology for capturing RNA content of subcellular compartments within native cellular and tissue context is published! Link to the article and Link to the press release.

[April 30, 2025] New paper alert!

Our book chapter on various computational tools to dissect the spatial transcriptomics data for studying mammalian spermatogenesis is published! Link to the article.

[April 28, 2025] New funding!

The lab has received the 2025 UTSW Haberecht Wildhare Idea Research Grant! This grant award will facilitate the development of methods to track cell movement in vivo.

[April 9, 2025] New paper alert!

Our review article on the applications of spatial transcriptomics technologies in studying mammalian spermatogenesis is published! Link to the article.

[Nov 8, 2024] Fall lab fun!

To celebrate many things (the holiday season and the 3rd anniversary of the lab are around the corner, Qianlan and Huong joined the lab, and Angie successfully completed her rotation), we immersed ourselves in VR gaming with our Mahendroo lab friends!

[Oct 28, 2024] Lab dinner!

The lab had a great time at the Green Center 50th anniversary dinner!

[Oct 11, 2024] New paper alert!

Our collaborative work on developing a technology for continuous mutagenesis in living cells is published! Link to the article.

[July 24, 2024] Summer lab fun!

We played Pickleball with our friends from the Gruber Lab!

[April 27, 2024] Congratulation, Shreya!

Our star research tech Shreya Rajachandran is going to medical school this summer. Congratulations, Shreya! We will miss you!

[April 19, 2024] The Chen Lab at the TFRS

Our lab had a great time at the Texas Forum for Reproductive Sciences (TFRS)! Upper left: Xin; upper right: Qiqi; bottom: Shreya.

[April 6, 2024] New funding!

The lab has received two new grants from the NIH! These grant awards will be used for developing/applying spatial omics technologies to understand the functions of biomolecular condensates and stem cell biology.

[March 6, 2024] New award!

Haiqi was named Rising Star in Reproductive Biology by the Scoceity for the Study of Reproduction! Link to the news coverage.

[Nov 17, 2023] We went mini-golfing!

To celebrate many things (the upcoming holidays and the 2nd birthday of the lab, Qiqi winning the best trainee talk at the Green Center retreat, and Shreya getting into meddical school), we went mini-golfing with our Grow lab friends!

[Oct 31, 2023] Happy Halloween!

From left: Shreya, Haiqi, Xin, and Qiqi.

[Oct 12, 2023] Our lab had a great time at the departmental retreat!

Upper left: Xin; upper right: Shreya and Qiqi; lower left: Qiqi; and lower right: Shreya.

[Oct 3, 2023] How to make a spermbot?

Haiqi shares his vision for solving the targeted drug delivery problem. Link to the essay.

[July 2, 2023] New paper alert!

Our research article on dissecting the spermatogonial stem cell niche using spatial transcriptomics is published! Link to the article.

[June 23, 2023] New paper alert!

Our review article on dissecting mammalian reproduction using spatial transcriptomics technologies is published! Link to the article.

[Jun 16, 2023] The lab hosted another awesome Green Center party!

Celebrating the pride month and Juneteenth with ice cream! From left: Shreya, Qiqi, Haiqi, and Xin.

[May 5, 2023] We threw some axes!

To celebrate many things (lab getting a NIH grant, Melanie wrapping up her project, Shreya getting a perfect MCAT score, and Lupe getting a promotion), we went to throw some axes! From left: Shreya, Melanie, Haiqi, Manjita (Grow Lab), Lupe, Denise (Grow Lab), Qiqi, and Xin.

[April 27, 2023] New paper alert!

Our collaborative work on developing a spatial genomics technology at subcellular resolution is published! [Link to the article] (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-023-01845-8).

[April 14, 2023] New funding!

The lab has received funding from the NIH! This grant award will be used for developing a spatially resolved CRISPR screen approach to study gene functions at scale.

[Dec 9, 2022] We escaped a room!

To celebrate many things (the holidays, Melanie finishing her medical board exam, Xin and Qiqi joining the lab, the upcoming 1-year anniversary of the lab, etc), we successfully escaped a room with our friends at the Grow Lab! From left: Melanie, Denise (Grow Lab), Ed (Grow Lab), Qiqi, Haiqi, Manjita (Grow Lab), Lupe, and Shreya.

[Oct 28, 2022] Party time!

The lab hosted an awesome Green Center Halloween party! From left: Shreya, Melanie, Qiqi, and Haiqi.

[Sep 1, 2022] New paper alert!

Our collaborative work on spatially-aware differential gene expression analysis is published! Link to the article.

[July 26, 2022] Lab lunch!

Lab lunch at the faculty club! From left: Shreya, Lupe, Melanie, and Haiqi.

[May 19, 2022] New paper alert!

Our collaborative review on emerging technologies for in vivo directed evolution is published! Link to the article.

[Mar 16, 2022] new paper alert!

Our collaborative work on dissecting kidney diseases using spatial transcriptomics is published! Link to the article.

[Dec 20, 2021] The lab officially opens!

We are hiring at all levels!