Zibo Chen-Center For Interdisciplinary Studies

People

Faculty

Zibo Chen,Ph.D.

▎BioProgramming LabEmail：zibochen@westlake.edu.cn

Biography

Zibo Chen obtained his B.Sc. degree in Life Sciences with First Class Honours from National University of Singapore (2013). He received his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry with David Baker and Frank DiMaio at the University of Washington (2013-2018) and worked on synthetic biology with Michael Elowitz at Caltech as a Damon Runyon Fellow (2019-2022).

2023 Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists

2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface

2020 Robert Dirks Molecular Programming Prize

2020 Forbes 30 Under 30

2019 MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 (China)

2019 Damon Runyon Fellowship

2019 The Science & SciLifeLab Prize

Research

What is life, and how can it be programmed? We approach this question from two extreme ends of cellular complexity. In mammalian cells, we design protein circuits that operate within the dynamic networks of living systems, interfacing with endogenous pathways to sense, compute, and control cellular behavior. In synthetic cells, we build life-like behaviors from the bottom up using minimal molecular components, creating simplified systems that reveal the fundamental principles underlying biological organization. By working simultaneously in these highly complex and highly reduced contexts, we seek to uncover the rules that govern living systems across scales:

1. Molecular Computing with Protein Circuits: We design protein circuits that can programmably and robustly carry out computations both inside and outside of cells. Such circuits allow one to predictably control cell functions. Circuit components are proteins designed from scratch or optimized from existing ones, which enables full customization of their functionalities at the single molecule level.

2. De Novo Design of Synthetic Cells: Living cells maintain themselves by coupling information storage, molecule regeneration, and spatial organization. We ask what is minimally required for these processes to become life-like by building synthetic cells from the bottom up. Our approach combines natural biological components with de novo designed protein modules to create synthetic cells whose replication and division can be modeled, programmed, and experimentally optimized. By reconstructing cellular behaviors outside the framework of existing organisms, we aim to reveal how life can emerge from seemingly lifeless molecules.

Representative Publications

1. Chen, Z., Elowitz, M.B., 2021. Programmable protein circuit design. Cell 184, 2284–2301.

2. Chen, Z., Kibler, R.D., Hunt, A., Busch, F., Pearl, J., Jia, M., VanAernum, Z.L., Wicky, B.I.M., Dods, G., Liao, H., Wilken, M.S., Ciarlo, C., Green, S., El-Samad, H., Stamatoyannopoulos, J., Wysocki, V.H., Jewett, M.C., Boyken, S.E., Baker, D., 2020. De novo design of protein logic gates. Science 368, 78–84.

3. Chen, Z., 2019. Creating the protein version of DNA base pairing. Science 366, 965–965.

4. Chen, Z., Johnson, M.C., Chen, J., Bick, M.J., Boyken, S.E., Lin, B., De Yoreo, J.J., Kollman, J.M., Baker, D., DiMaio, F., 2019. Self-Assembling 2D Arrays with de Novo Protein Building Blocks. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141, 8891–8895.

5. Chen, Z., Boyken, S.E., Jia, M., Busch, F., Flores-Solis, D., Bick, M.J., Lu, P., VanAernum, Z.L., Sahasrabuddhe, A., Langan, R.A., Bermeo, S., Brunette, T.J., Mulligan, V.K., Carter, L.P., DiMaio, F., Sgourakis, N.G., Wysocki, V.H., Baker, D., 2019. Programmable design of orthogonal protein heterodimers. Nature 565, 106–111.

6. Boyken, S.E., Chen, Z., Groves, B., Langan, R.A., Oberdorfer, G., Ford, A., Gilmore, J.M., Xu, C., DiMaio, F., Pereira, J.H., Sankaran, B., Seelig, G., Zwart, P.H., Baker, D., 2016. De novo design of protein homo-oligomers with modular hydrogen-bond network-mediated specificity. Science 352, 680–687.

Contact Us

We thrive to provide an inclusive research environment so everyone finds their time in our lab enjoyable and productive. Being a lab that works collaboratively across disciplines, we welcome individuals with various scientific backgrounds, including but not limited to, biology, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, material science, and chemistry. For current openings please see https://chenlab.org/page/join-us