Jie-Fu Chen (Jeff), MD

Past Trainee (NTU, 2013)

Current Position:  Washington University in St. Louis, Resident Physician

Dr. Jie-Fu Chen a physician-scientist currently receiving clinical training as a resident physician of Anatomic Pathology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.  He received his Doctor of Medicine from National Taiwan University College of Medicine, and completed postdoctoral research training in University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) after graduation, under the mentorship of Dr. Hsian-Rong Tseng and Dr. Edwin Posadas.  His research interests focus on developing new blood-borne biomarkers and assays for detecting and monitoring aggressive cancers, with an ultimate goal to unveil the cancer biology and implement new therapeutic strategies.  At UCLA and CSMC, Dr. Chen optimized generations of "NanoVelcro" microfluidic cell-affinity assay for detection, isolation and characterization of rare cells.  This resulted in the use of NanoVelcro Assays for enumerating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in prostate, pancreatic and lung carcinomas, as well as isolating fetal cells from maternal blood.  He also conducted the translational research into CTCs from prostate cancer patients, and discovered very-small-nuclear CTCs (vsnCTCs) and their association with visceral metastasis.  Together with an anonymized and heavily annotated clinical database he and the team assembled, these works laid the foundation for several clinical studies focusing on the use of CTC morphologic subsets for detecting and predicting aggressive variants of prostate cancer.  In addition, Dr. Chen developed gene expression analysis in CTCs purified by NanoVelcro Assay, and demonstrated the potential clinical value of CTC-derived RNA signatures in association with resistance to androgen receptor signaling inhibitors.  The successful subclassification and characterization of CTCs for prognostication or prediction of aggressive cancer cast light on the use of liquid biopsy in personalized care in oncology.  After completing the residency, Dr. Chen will continue to pursue the career of an academic pathologist, and is scheduled to continue his training as a clinical fellow of Genitourinary Pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

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Google Scholar link:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MSfXI4wAAAAJ&hl=en

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