Xing Chen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, specializing in brain-computer interfaces, visual neuroscience, blindness, and chronic recording from and microstimulation of the brain.

Originally from Singapore, she won a Trustee (full-tuition) scholarship to study at the University of Southern California in 2004, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience in 2008. Subsequently, she obtained her PhD in Visual Neuroscience at Newcastle University (UK), in the lab of Alexander Thiele, examining how extensive training and improvement on fine visual tasks is accompanied by changes in the primate visual system at the neuronal level.

She moved to the Netherlands in 2014, working as a postdoctoral researcher with Pieter Roelfsema at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. In 2016, she played a pivotal role in securing funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for a 4-year €1.78M programme on the development of a visual cortical neuroprosthesis, involving five research labs, ten companies, and three organisations for the blind and visually impaired. In partnership with Blackrock Microsystems, she developed an unprecedentedly high-channel-count, high-resolution neuroprosthesis for chronic recording and electrical stimulation of primate visual cortex, establishing proof-of-concept for the generation of artificial vision in the blind, resulting in publication in the journal Science.

Her work has been featured in international and national newspapers, radio and television, including CNN, Science Magazine, Science Podcasts, Scientific American, Het Parool, De Volkskrant, Het Financieele Dagblad, El País, NOS, NPO Radio, and RTL News. In 2019, she co-founded Phosphoenix, a neurotech startup which aims to develop clinical devices that allow profoundly blind people to regain functional vision. In 2020, she was promoted to Senior Researcher and co-principal-investigator in two large consortium grants, €14.3M 7-year programme (‘INTENSE’) and €4M 4-year programme (‘NeuraViPeR’) for the development of implantable neurotechnology for clinical applications.

Xing speaks fluent Dutch, in addition to her native language, English. She is also the author of a guidebook on cycling targeted at expats, titled ‘Learn to Cycle in Amsterdam.’

Research Spotlights

• Exploring Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics and Ethics: An Interview with Dr. Xing Chen

  November 28, 2023 8:15 AM

Experience

• Assistant Professor (2022 - present)

  Chen Lab

  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

• Co-Founder (2019 - present)

  Phosphoenix

• Senior Researcher (2020 - 2022)

  Vision and Cognition Group

  Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

• Postdoctoral Researcher (2014 - 2020)

  Vision and Cognition Group

  Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Education

• PhD, Visual Neuroscience (2008 - 2014)

  Newcastle University