Felicia Chen, M.D.

Faculty and Fellows


Email:  felichen@bu.edu

Assistant Professor of Medicine

BU Profile for Dr. Chen

Medical School: Albany Medical College
Internship: Boston University
Residency: Boston University
Fellowship: Boston University

 

Dr. Chen attends in the Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center.  She also provides pulmonary and critical care consultative services at Sturdy Memorial Hospital and an affiliated rehabilitation hospital.

 

Special Interests:

  • Vitamin A and retinoid biology
  • Embryonic lung development
  • Lung homeostasis
  • Lung injury and repair
  • Fibrotic lung diseases
  • Asthma
  • Airway smooth muscle heterogeneity

Dr. Chen’s laboratory projects focus on the role of retinoic acid, the natural active metabolite of vitamin A, in embryonic lung development and postnatal lung health.  Dr. Chen uses a multifaceted approach to achieve retinoic acid deficiency in mouse models for her studies, including dietary deprivation of vitamin A, pharmacologic blockade of retinoic acid synthesis and receptor activation, as well as genetic modification.  Her current projects include the regulatory properties of retinoic acid on 1) airway smooth muscle homeostasis, 2) pulmonary vascular smooth muscle phenotypes, 3) embryonic airway epithelial specification, and 4) pulmonary lymphatic endothelial development.

 

Publications

  1. Chen F, Shao F, Hinds A, Yao S, Ram-Mohan S, Norman T, Krishnan R, Fine A. (2018) Retinoic acid signaling is essential for airway smooth muscle homeostasis. JCI InsightEpub ahead of print.
  2. Wasserman GA, Szymaniak AD, Hinds AC, Yamamoto K, Kamata H, Smith NM, Hilliard KL, Carrieri C, Labadorf AT, Quinton LJ, Ai X, Varelas X, Chen F, Mizgerd JP, Fine A, O’Carroll D, Jones MR. (2017) Expression of Piwi protein MIWI2 defines a distinct population of multiciliated cells. J Clin Invest. 127:3866-76.
  3. Chen F, Fine A. (2016) Stem cells in lung injury and repair. Am J Pathol. 186:2544-50.
  4. Cardoso WV, Chen F. (2015) Retinoic acid in the developing lung and other foregut derivatives.  The Retinoids: Biology, Biochemistry, and DIsease (ed. P. Dolle and K Niederreither), John Wiley & Sons, inc. Hoboken, NJ.
  5. Chen F, Cardoso WV. (2015) Culture of mouse embryonic foregut explants. Methods Mol Biol. 1189:163-9.
  6. Chen F, Marquez H, Kim YK, Qian J, Shao F, Fine A, Cruikhsnak WW, Quadro L, Cardoso WV. (2014) Prenatal retinoid deficiency leads to airway hyperresponsiveness in adult mice. J Clin Invest. 124:801-11.
  7. Chen F, Qian J, Shao F, Niederreither K, Cardoso WV. (2010) A retinoic acid-dependent network in the foregut mesoderm controls formation of the lung primordium. J Clin Invest.  120: 2040-8.
  8. Shi W, Chen F, Cardoso WV. (2009) Mechanisms of lung development: contribution to adult lung disease and relevance to COPD.  Proc Am Thorac Soc. 6:558-63.
  9. Tsao PN, Chen F, Izvolsky KI, Walker J, Kukuruzinska MA, Lu J, Cardoso WV. (2008) Gamma-secretase activation of notch signaling regulates the balance of proximal and distal fates in progenitor cells of the developing lung. J Biol Chem. 283: 29532-44.
  10. Chen F, Desai TJ, Qian J, Niederreither K, Lu J, Cardoso WV. (2007) Inhibition of Tgfβ signaling by endogenous retinoic acid is essential for primary lung bud induction. Development. 134:2969-79.
  11. Desai Tj, Chen F, Lu J, Qian J, Niederreither K, Dolle P, Chambon P, Cardoso WV. (2005) Distinct roles for retinoic acid receptors alpha and beta in early lung morphogenesis. Developmental Biology. 291:12-24.
  12. Lu J, Qian J, Chen F, Tang X, Li C, Cardoso WV. (2005) Differential expression of components of the microRNA machinery during mouse organogenesis. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 334:319-23.

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