Xiaoyu Chen
About Xiaoyu Chen
Xiaoyu Chen serves as the Senior Director of Bioinformatics Development at Sana Biotechnology, Inc., where he leads efforts in genomic integrity evaluation for cell and gene therapies. He has a strong background in bioinformatics, having held various positions at Illumina and Adaptive Biotechnologies, and possesses extensive experience in next-generation sequencing data analysis.
Current Role at Sana Biotechnology
Xiaoyu Chen serves as the Senior Director of Bioinformatics Development at Sana Biotechnology, Inc. since 2022. In this role, Chen leads the development and application of computational analytics for various Investigational New Drug (IND) and clinical studies. Chen's responsibilities include evaluating genomic integrity for cell lines and clones, which is essential for minimizing safety risks associated with cell and gene-based therapies.
Previous Experience at Illumina
Xiaoyu Chen held multiple positions at Illumina, beginning as a Bioinformatics Scientist 1 from 2011 to 2013, followed by Bioinformatics Scientist 2 from 2013 to 2015, and then as a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist from 2016 to 2019. During this time, Chen developed algorithms and high-performance computing methods to model basecall quality for Illumina's next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Chen's extensive experience at Illumina contributed to advancements in bioinformatics and genomic analysis.
Experience at Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp.
From 2020 to 2021, Xiaoyu Chen worked as a Principal Computational Biologist at Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. During this tenure, Chen focused on computational biology, contributing to the understanding of immune responses and the development of therapies based on adaptive immunity.
Educational Background
Xiaoyu Chen earned a Master of Science in Computer Science with a focus on Bioinformatics from McGill University, studying from 2003 to 2006. Chen later pursued a PhD in Computer Science with a specialization in Computational Biology at the University of Washington, completing the program from 2007 to 2011. This educational foundation provided Chen with the skills necessary for a successful career in bioinformatics and computational biology.
Research and Development Contributions
Throughout their career, Xiaoyu Chen has developed several computational methods aimed at understanding mechanisms of transcriptional regulation using genomic and epigenomic data. Chen has extensive experience in both primary and secondary analysis of NGS data and in creating clinical software pipelines, which are critical for advancing genomic research and applications in medicine.