Ji Chen Ph.D.

2019 Excellent speaker, Biology Forum of Tsinghua University
2018 National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81803072)
2016 Advanced Innovation Fellow, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology
2015 Bird Stair Research Fellowship, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
2015 The New England BioLabs Poster Prize, The 20th annual meeting of the RNA society
2013 Henry Moses Award (for outstanding early career publication), Purdue University

Main Reaearch Fields

Ribozymes, Synthetic biology

Selected Publications

1. Chen, J. and Zhu, T.F., Mirror-image selection of biostable L-DNA aptamers directly from a large randomized L-DNA library. Under review

2. Chen, J.; Chen, M; and Zhu, T.F., Translating protein enzymes without aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Chem (2021) 7, 786-798.

3. Mir, A. *; Chen, J. *; Robinson, K.; Lendy, E.; Goodman, J.; Neau, D.; and Golden, B. L.
Two divalent metal ions and conformational changes play roles in the hammerhead ribozyme cleavage reaction. Biochemistry (2015) 54, 6369-6381. (*equal contribution)

4. Chen, J.; Ganguly, A.; Miswan, Z.; Hammes-Schiffer, S.; Bevilacqua, P. C. and Golden, B. L. Identification of the catalytic Mg²⁺ ion in the hepatitis delta virus ribozyme. Biochemistry (2013) 52, 557-567.

PATENT

Ribozyme with tRNA synthetase activity and methods of manufacturing and using the same, Golden, B. L., Chen, J. and Luptak, A., October 2018 (US Patent No. 10,113,168)

EXPERTISE

Ribozymes, Synthetic biology

PRESENTATIONS

2019  Talk: “Protein translation without aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases”, Biology Forum of Tsinghua University

2015  Talk: “Engineering a ribozyme with tRNA synthetase activity”, Biochemistry Annual Research Retreat, West Lafayette, IN

2015  Poster: “Engineered riboswitch that aminoacylates tRNA with unnatural aminoacid”, The 20^th annual meeting of the RNA society, Madison, WI

2014  Poster: “Structural evidence for metal ion-assisted catalysis in hammerhead ribozyme”, The 34th Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference, Chicago, IL

2013  Poster: “Crystal structure of an artificial full-length hammerhead ribozyme”, Rustbelt RNA Meeting, Cleveland, OH

2012  Poster: “Characterizing the contribution of a reverse G-U wobble pair to metalion catalysis in the HDV ribozyme”, The 17^th annual meeting of the RNA society, Ann Arbor, MI