Kai Chen
@kaichen_1990
Followers
1K
Following
2K
Media
12
Statuses
212
Protein engineering, gene editing, synthetic chemistry/biology. PhD with @francesarnold at Caltech, currently postdoc with Jennifer Doudna at UC Berkeley.
Berkeley, CA
Joined June 2017
Our review of “engineering new catalytic activities in #enzymes” is online at @NatureCatalysis, highlighting the work from @HysterLab, @JCLewisLab, @WardGroupBS, @Turner_Biocat, @RoelfesGroup, @FasanLab, Müller, Hauer, us @francesarnold lab and more.
nature.com
Nature Catalysis - Advances in enzyme performance and capabilities are making them increasingly attractive to synthetic chemists. In this Review Chen and Arnold outline the ways that enzymes have...
1
37
132
David Baltimore, President Emeritus and the Judge Shirley Hufstedler Professor of Biology, Emeritus at Caltech and a co-recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, passed away on September 6, 2025. He was 87 years old. https://t.co/2bMBqUCXBC
6
38
129
I discuss the urgent crisis from the loss of federal support of science in the US and recent clinical gene editing breakthroughs with @WalterIsaacson & @amanpour on @AmanpourCoPBS, airing on @PBS tonight at 11 pm ET, and on @cnni earlier today. Pls share! https://t.co/cyVZpAwJiq
881
338
1K
My ACS Priestley Medal address can be found here. Many stories not told in science talks...
10
17
137
Meet @francesarnold, 2025 Priestley Medalist, at #ACSSpring2025. Stop by the ACS Booth Theater in the Expo Hall to hear about her contributions to #chemistry and pick up a signed copy of her C&EN feature issue. RSVP: https://t.co/Vr4HqfHGxi
4
7
33
We are excited to report the discovery of TIGRs, a widely-occurring RNA-guided system found in bacteria and their viruses. TIGRs consist of a peculiar repeat region which is transcribed into RNA and processed into multiple guide RNAs to direct TIGR-associated proteins to their
science.org
RNA-guided systems provide remarkable versatility, enabling diverse biological functions. Through iterative structural and sequence homology-based mining starting with a guide RNA-interaction domain...
26
271
1K
Announcing Evo 2: The largest publicly available, AI model for biology to date, capable of understanding and designing genetic code across all three domains of life. https://t.co/1Zt6gQ74SA
22
258
1K
🚀 DeepSeek-R1 is here! ⚡ Performance on par with OpenAI-o1 📖 Fully open-source model & technical report 🏆 MIT licensed: Distill & commercialize freely! 🌐 Website & API are live now! Try DeepThink at https://t.co/v1TFy7LHNy today! 🐋 1/n
2K
7K
36K
On 30 December chemistry laureate Fraser Stoddart sadly passed away at the age of 82. Stoddart's groundbreaking work in the field of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology has left an indelible mark on the scientific community and a forever lasting gift to society and
4
60
236
Congratulations to Broad core institute member @zhangf on receiving the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s most prestigious honor for American innovators! https://t.co/7PAtMpK7hH
6
22
249
With profound sadness, we announce the passing of Sir Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Laureate and cherished member of @NorthwesternU. His groundbreaking contributions transformed the field of #chemistry and inspired countless scientists worldwide. ➡️ https://t.co/S7e0nwfruD
47
345
778
Lung and liver editing by lipid nanoparticle delivery of a stable CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein https://t.co/D0B2efppfG
1
67
233
Thrilled to share our latest work on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery of a stable CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) for in vivo genome editing, now published @NatureBiotech! 🧬 https://t.co/UIZ5vszKto In this paper, we first engineered robust, efficient, and stable
13
54
258
We’re presenting AlphaProteo: an AI system for designing novel proteins that bind more successfully to target molecules. 🧬 It could help scientists better understand how biological systems function, save time in research, advance drug design and more. 🧵 https://t.co/lx35RvplFr
68
806
3K
My favourite discovery ever has just come online. Can I please tell you about some seriously wacky molecular biology? The story starts with a reverse transcriptase that SOMEHOW defends bacteria from viruses. (👇 I recommend sound ON for the video 🎹) 1/
102
1K
5K
Now this is wild: An #enzyme can use NO (and other nitrogen cycle intermediates) for C-H amination! #directedevolution. Lovely mechanistic work by @Anuvab_tweet led to this discovery.
I am excited to share our latest discovery which is out now in @J_A_C_S! This study uncovers how engineered hemoproteins can leverage biological nitrogen cycle intermediates for enzymatic C–H amination, opening new paths towards sustainable synthesis. https://t.co/H3jzx6c49h
1
14
136
How I Met Your Mother/Father: The Synaptic Partner Matching Tale Thanks to incredible colleagues @LuoLabStanford and collaborators @JiefuBiol @aliceyting @BroadProteomics !
cell.com
Synaptic partner matching in the fly olfactory circuit is achieved by selectively stabilizing axon branches by partner dendrites. Synaptic partner matching molecule Ten-m regulates this process by...
4
5
28
What an honor to be chosen for the Priestley Medal. #Enzymes are the best chemists, of course, but the Priestley medalists are no slouches...and include many of my colleagues @CaltechCCE. Thank you!
Congrats to #NobelLaureate @francesarnold, recipient of the 2025 Priestley Medal, the highest honor awarded by ACS which recognizes an individual for distinguished service to #chemistry. https://t.co/SLvGveotfR
#ChemTwitter #Awards #NobelPrize
43
75
913
Congratulations to Professor Frances Arnold (@francesarnold) on receiving the 2025 Priestley Medal! 🎉 The ACS is honoring Arnold, "for her pioneering contributions to the development of directed evolution as a method for chemical and biological design." https://t.co/DiVd74xDFU
cce.caltech.edu
Bestowing the chemical engineer with its highest honor, the American Chemical Society recognized Arnold's years of work developing and applying directed evolution to nature's catalysts.
4
15
91
What if we could universally recombine, insert, delete, or invert any two pieces of DNA? In back-to-back @Nature papers, we report the discovery of bridge RNAs and 3 atomic structures of the first natural RNA-guided recombinase - a new mechanism for programmable genome design
189
1K
5K