April 20, 2021

Dr. Fei Chen receives Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Fellowship

Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor Fei Chen has been honored by the Wayne State University Board of Governors with a 2021 Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, to be presented during Academic Recognition Week May 3-7.

These fellowships were created to recognize and provide support for select senior members of the faculty whose continuing achievements and current activities in scholarship, research, or the fine and performing arts are nationally distinguished. Gershenson served on the Board of Governors; two-year fellowships have been named in his honor since 1985.

“Since Dr. Chen joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2010, he has continued on a steep ascent of academic success and reached a current pinnacle of scholarly achievement, conferring a broad positive impact on the college, university, his research fields and extended scientific communities,” said Pharmaceutical Sciences Chair and Professor George Corcoran. “I am frankly astonished by the work of Dr. Chen. It is unusually rigorous and innovative, and holds promise for producing high impact in its translation to improving human health.” 

A pioneer in the field of the molecular basis of lung disease and cancers, particularly those caused by exposures to metals, Chen identified a novel mineral dust-induced gene named mdig. In this seminal contribution, he established that mdig plays a heretofore unrecognized critical role in inflammatory lung diseases and cancers. Chen followed this with other high-impact discoveries, including that cancer stem-like cells generate lower levels of damaging reactive oxygen species, contributing to resistance to conventional cancer treatments and to its spread.

“Dr. Chen is an inspiring international scientist,” said WSU Applebaum Interim Dean Cathy Lysack. “He is a researcher and scholar of the highest quality and integrity.”

UPDATE: On July 1, 2021, Dr. Fei Chen left WSU for Stony Brook University in New York.

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