Dr. Chen first pursued an interest in stem cells as a Neonatology Research Fellow at Harbor-UCLA’s School of Medicine in 1993. It was pleasant working near LA’s sunny beaches, “but my family was in Taiwan,” he said with a hint of homesickness. After a year studying stem cells in sheep, Dr. Chen returned to TMU and began experimenting on rats. Dr. Chen has been working with stem cells ever since, and is the only researcher in Taiwan working with stem cells in a rat model of BPD. Dr. Chen is excited to be at the forefront bringing these discoveries to medical treatment. At Chang-Gung University Hospital he heads of one of only three teams in the world to have begun Phase I clinical studies, and plans to administer MSCs directly to the lungs of preterm infants suffering from BPD.