Dr. Xiaoying Chen is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at the Institute for Immunology and the IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University. She is also affiliated with the Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences. In 2025, she founded the System Neuroimmunology Laboratory at Tsinghua University. Her research focuses on understanding the brain-immune communication across health, aging, and disease. 

Dr. Xiaoying Chen has contributed significant insights into understanding neuronal plasticity during development, learning activities, and neuron-immune interactions in neurodegenerative disease. She has received a number of honors and awards, including the Jeffrey L. Morby Prize for Best Research in Alzheimer’s Disease from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (2024), the Early Career Achievement Award from Alzheimer’s Association (2023), the Career Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience (2023), the Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust from Rotary Foundation (2023), the O’Leary Prize for Best Neuroscience Research at Washington University (2022), the Poletsky Award for Alzheimer’s Disease Research from Washington University (2022), and the Tau Consortium Fellowship from Rainwater Charitable Foundation (2019). 

She is a member of Society for Neuroscience, Alzheimer’s Association, American Society for Neurochemistry, American Neurological Association and International Society for Molecular Neurodegeneration. Dr. Chen has reviewed papers for journals, including Immunity, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Alzheimer's & Dementia, Science Advances, Cell Reports, Molecular Neurodegeneration, and Journal of Clinical Investigation.