XPC #11: Fei Chen - Expansion Microscopy, Spatial Transcriptomics, Spatial Genomics

Xapiens at MIT

The Xapiens Podcast (XPC) Episode 11:

Join Xapiens Co-Director Bobby Johnston in a discussion with Fei Chen. Fei is a core institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an assistant professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. During the course of his doctoral research, Chen co-invented Expansion Microscopy. He completed his undergraduate degree at CalTech in EE before coming to MIT for his Ph.D. in biological engineering. Fei can sometimes be found playing basketball around MIT, which is how Bobby first met him, and eventually convinced him to talk on the podcast.

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RELEVANT LINKS:

Fei Chen Lab: https://www.broadinstitute.org/bios/fei-chen

DNA Dark Matter Detectors: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.6809.pdf

Ticker Tape Paper: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1306/1306.5709.pdf

Bionumbers: https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/search.aspx?trm=ribosome+coli

Inflation Calculator: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

OUTLINE:

0:00 - Expansion Microscopy in 120 seconds

2:12 - Introduction

3:12 - From EE to Biology

6:37 - Transition to Graduate School

9:53 - The Chen Lab

11:17 - What Do You Look for In Undergrads?

13:53 - Working as a Mentor

16:15 - Overview of Expansion Microscopy

26:02 - Does the Exact Expansion Factor Matter?

28:05 - ExMic + Electron Microscopy?

31:11 - Feeling of Discovery as a Grad Student

34:08 - Difficulties Along the Way

35:46 - From Grad School to Chen Lab

39:19 - How are Abundances of Genes Measured?

45:27 - The Cell as a State Machine

53:40 - Where is the ROM?

58:35 - Temporal Genomics and Dynamic Videos

1:07:19 - Overview of Slide Seq

1:19:31 - Are There Enough Tools in This Field?

1:24:00 - Sources of Inspiration

1:26:53 - OpenWetWare

1:33:00 - Advice to Young People