People

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Chen grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He moved to the US for college where he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and majored in biochemistry. Chen received his PhD in cell biology from Northwestern University and carried out his postdoctoral training with Valentina Greco at Yale. The Kam lab opened its doors in February 2025 in the UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology and Broad Stem Cell Research Center (BSCRC).

Staff Research Associate

Matthew was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. In 2023, Matthew graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in Psychology. During his undergraduate studies, Matthew joined an accelerated master’s degree program which allowed him to graduate with his MS in neuroscience in 2024. Matthew’s graduate research investigated the relationship between early life stress, anxiety-like behaviors, and microglia activity in rodent models. Following graduation, Matthew moved back to Los Angeles, where he worked as a lab technician at USC’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology. Matthew joined the Kam Lab in May of 2025 as a staff research associate.