Jueqi Chen

Jueqi Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Chicago, focusing on host-pathogen interactions and innate immune signaling pathways. Their research explores how pathogens trigger or inhibit immune responses, leading to infectious disease pathogenesis or inflammation-related disorders.

Education:

• B.S. in Biotechnology, Zhejiang University (2009)
• Ph.D. in Biomedical Science, UT Southwestern Medical Center (2014)
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Immunology & Microbiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center (2019)

Chen's lab investigates inflammasomes, particularly the NLRP3 pathway, and how pathogens manipulate subcellular organelles like the trans-Golgi network. They discovered 3a dense bodies (3DBs) during SARS-CoV-2 infection and study their role in viral assembly and pathogenesis.

Their research combines biochemical assays, confocal fluorescence imaging, CRISPR technology, and animal models. Part of the lab operates at the Howard Taylor Ricketts Laboratory (BSL3 facility), enabling high-containment studies of SARS-CoV-2.