Walter Chen, MD, PhD profile page

I was born and raised in New York City. I attended college at Princeton University, where I majored in Biochemistry and graduated magna cum laude in 2009. I joined the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD program and obtained my PhD in Biology from MIT (mentor: David M. Sabatini) in 2016 and my MD (cum laude) from Harvard Medical School in 2018. I then did my Pediatrics residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program of Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center before joining the UT Southwestern Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program in 2021 and then joining the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Division as an Attending Physician in 2024. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in Ralph DeBerardinis’ lab studying uncharacterized proteins in mitochondria and peroxisomes. My future independent research program will use the lens of newborn medicine to study these organelles and uncover principles of human metabolism that can improve the care of diseases caused by organellar dysfunction in neonates and beyond. I have 23 publications, totaling > 11,000 citations (h-index 21) and my work on organellar metabolomics has been recognized previously as a Breakthrough of the Year by Science Signaling. For my research in organellar biology, I have received the STAT Wunderkind Award, The American Society for Clinical Investigation Emerging Generation Award, a National Institutes of Health K08 Clinical Investigator Award, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists.