Lab Philosophy

The Chen Lab is a vibrant, collaborative home for curious scientists who love tackling research questions using innovative approaches. Here, we combine rigorous experimentation with creative thinking, curiosity, and genuine care for one another. We work hard because we are passionate about discovery, but we also prioritize balance, well-being, and supporting each person’s unique journey.

As a new lab, this philosophy outlines our initial guidelines to foster a safe and supportive lab environment. These are flexible starting points that will evolve as the team grows. We will incorporate feedback from all members to ensure everyone feels supported and valued. Whether you are a postdoc, graduate student, technician, or undergraduate, you will find a place here to grow, contribute, and thrive.

Core Values and Principles

We believe great science comes from great people working together with integrity and joy. Our core values guide everything we do:

  • Mentorship and Personal Development: We prioritize holistic growth for every lab member by tailoring guidance to individual strengths, goals, and challenges. We aim to teach you the mindset and skills of a curious researcher, adequately equipping you to pursue endeavors after leaving the lab.

  • Curiosity and Scientific Rigor: We ask bold questions and encourage people to take smart risks and pursue exciting detours. Simultaneously, we maintain a high level of scientific rigor—designing careful experiments with proper controls, documenting work for reproducibility, and actively challenging our own models before sharing them with the world.

  • Communication and Collaboration: Science is a team effort, and everyone’s ideas matter, from first-year students to senior postdocs. We constantly solicit feedback, share technical expertise, brainstorm, and celebrate successes as a group.

  • Kindness & Respect: We actively work to ensure everyone feels seen and heard. We monitor our language and our biases to maintain an inclusive lab environment that welcomes all. While hard work in the lab fuels discovery, we respect life outside the lab, which is key to well-being and sustainability.

Expectations

As your PI, I will provide:

  • Support & Feedback: My door (physical and virtual) is always open. I will enthusiastically back your ideas by brainstorming, training, troubleshooting, and securing resources to make them happen. You can expect timely, constructive critique on everything from raw data to polished manuscripts.

  • Advocacy & Transparency: I will be your lifelong advocate, training you to be a rigorous scientist and tailoring my mentorship to your specific goals (whether in academia, industry, or beyond). I also commit to total honesty: I will admit my mistakes and strive never to be the bottleneck in your progress.

  • Professional Growth: Your training extends beyond the bench. In addition to regular meetings, we will check in annually on your long-term goals and adjust our approach to match them. I will send you to at least one conference per year and help you build skills in peer review, teaching, and leadership.

As a Chen Lab member, you will uphold:

  • Ownership & Communication: Take charge of your project with passion, intellectual curiosity, and scientific rigor. We value transparency over perfection: communicate openly about mistakes and your needs. We will meet regularly to discuss progress and strategies to troubleshoot challenges.

  • Citizenship & Participation: Be a conscientious lab citizen by sharing reagents and detailed notes/protocols, keeping spaces clean, and helping others. We expect you to maintain momentum in your research while actively contributing to the lab; be a resource other members can rely on and participate fully in meetings.

  • Respect & Culture: Treat every colleague with kindness and assume good intent. While you have flexibility in your schedule, we expect substantial overlap with the group to foster collaboration and scientific discussion.

Lab Practices

Career Development and Training. The Chen Lab fosters a culture that encourages the active exchange of ideas and supports the development of rigorous scientists. I meet with each member every summer to review their Individual Development Plan (IDP) and structure a strategy to meet their career goals. Additionally, members have weekly one-on-one meetings with me to discuss research progress and work on opportunities that support those goals (e.g., collaborations, fellowships, and conferences). We also hold weekly lab meetings, allowing members to practice presenting their research and receiving feedback from colleagues. Outside of formal meetings, I maintain an open-door policy and make myself available whenever possible. For further enrichment and networking, we attend seminars across the UCSF campus, and we encourage members to attend one conference each year.

Communication and Organization. We build the Chen Lab on a foundation of trust, transparency, and frequent communication. While we aim to promote collaboration, we recognize that we are all different and conflicts may arise. We have several avenues to manage these situations, and I am always available to facilitate a resolution. This commitment extends to our weekly lab meetings, where we discuss lab issues and address feedback (both named and anonymous). For daily interactions, Slack is our primary hub, with dedicated channels for lab chores, scientific discussions, and social fun. We reserve email for formal correspondence with UCSF colleagues and external collaborators. To improve knowledge dissemination, our lab utilizes electronic lab notebooks (Benchling) and digital data repositories (Google Drive and Box) to detail experiments and protocols, and to organize lab strains, plasmids, and oligos. We maintain clear, detailed notes that are readily shareable. Finally, we manage all meeting scheduling and equipment booking via Google Calendar.

Open Science and Publishing. To accelerate discovery, the Chen Lab prioritizes open science and transparent recognition. We share our findings widely by posting preprints on bioRxiv promptly and depositing all data, code, and protocols in public repositories. When publishing, We prioritize rigor and appropriate audience over prestige. This guiding principle applies equally to our authorship practices; we assign credit fairly based on substantive contributions. We discuss authorship early and often to ensure equitable decision-making, and we generously recognize smaller contributions through acknowledgments in papers, letters, and presentations.

Health, Safety, and Well-Being. In the Chen Lab, we value people over productivity. To be a great scientist, you must take care of your personal health and well-being, as well as your childcare and family commitments. We provide the training, supplies, and resources necessary to maintain a workspace that is physically and psychologically safe. To preserve the well-being of our members, the Chen Lab advocates for a healthy balance between work and personal life. We foster a culture of teamwork—frequently communicating and helping each other with experiments—by organizing gatherings to celebrate milestones and an annual lab retreat. We also encourage members to take time off to recharge significantly. In emergencies or times of need, we respect the decision to take extended leave; please simply communicate directly with me so we can support you.