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tagsperson, scientist, cortical-prosthesis, neuroprosthesis, lgn, implant, visual-cortex, neuroscience

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Xing Chen, PhD

Visual neuroscientist, BCI researcher, and co-founder of phosphoenix. Currently tenure-track Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh. Widely recognised as one of the key experimental architects of the high-channel-count visual prosthesis field — her Science 2020 paper with Roelfsema demonstrating letter perception in macaques with 1,024 electrodes is the scientific foundation of Phosphoenix.

Positions

  • Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology (tenure-track), Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh (current). PI, Brain-Computer Interface Vision Laboratory.
  • Senior Researcher, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN), 2020–2022. Co-PI on large EU consortium programs totalling >€18M.
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, NIN, lab of pieter-roelfsema, 2014–2020.

Education

DegreeYearInstitutionSupervisor
BSc Neuroscience2008University of Southern California—
PhD Visual Neuroscience2014Newcastle University, UKAlexander Thiele

Awards & recognition

YearAward
2026Top 5 Young American Scientists — Scientific American
2025Blackrock Neurotech Ecosystem Operator Award
2024NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2) — Common Fund High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program (Early-Stage Investigators)
2024Wiegand Entrepreneurial Research Award
2023(via Phosphoenix) HBP Innovation Award
2019Co-founded Phosphoenix B.V. (EIC SIGHTED grant €2.5M, 2025)

Research programme (Pitt Chen Lab)

Develops high-channel-count, chronically implantable devices for recording from and stimulating the brain. Core aims:

  • Enable functional vision restoration in blind people via direct cortical/thalamic stimulation
  • Platform technology extending beyond vision to movement disorders, epilepsy, OCD, depression
  • Harnesses advances in electrode fabrication and microelectronics to improve probe durability and biocompatibility
  • Uses >1,000-channel devices in macaques and humans; induces phosphene perception (dots of light), movement perception, letter shapes

Key publications

Artificial vision and neuroprosthetics

  • Chen X, Wang F, Fernández E, Roelfsema PR. Shape perception via a high-channel-count neuroprosthesis in monkey visual cortex. Science 2020;370(6521):1191–1196. DOI: 10.1126/science.abd7435 — Landmark: 1,024-electrode macaque V1/V4; monkeys recognise letters and shapes from multi-electrode phosphene patterns. Founding paper for Phosphoenix. chen-2020-shape-perception.md

  • Chen X, Wang F, Kooijmans R, Klink PC, Boehler C, Asplund M, Roelfsema PR. Chronic stability of a neuroprosthesis comprising multiple adjacent Utah arrays in monkeys. J Neural Eng 2023;20(3). — Long-term safety/stability evidence.

  • Fernández E, Alfaro A, …, Chen X, Roelfsema PR. Visual percepts evoked with an intracortical 96-channel microelectrode array inserted in human occipital cortex. J Clin Invest 2021;131(23):e151331. — First human cortical visual prosthesis percept data with this electrode type.

  • Wang F*, Chen X*, Roelfsema PR. Comparison of electrical microstimulation artifact removal methods for high-channel-count prostheses. J Neurosci Methods 2024;408(110).

  • van Velthoven EAM, …, Chen X, Roelfsema PR. Ethical implications of visual neuroprostheses — a systematic review. J Neural Eng 2022;19:026055.

Electrophysiology / methods

  • Chen X, Morales-Gregorio A, Sridhar S, et al. 1024-channel electrophysiological recordings in macaque V1 and V4 during resting state. Sci Data 2022;9(77).

  • Chen X, Possel J, Wacongne C, Klink P, Roelfsema P. 3D printing and modelling of customized implants and surgical guides for non-human primates. J Neurosci Methods 2017;286:38–55.

  • Klink PC, Chen X, Vanduffel W, Roelfsema PR. Population receptive fields in non-human primates from whole-brain fMRI and large-scale neurophysiology. eLife 2021;10:e67304.

Perceptual learning (Newcastle)

  • Sanayei M, Chen X, et al. Perceptual learning of fine contrast discrimination changes neuronal tuning in macaque V4. Nat Commun 2018;9:4238.
  • Earlier Chen/Thiele perceptual learning papers in macaque (J Vision 2013; PLoS ONE 2014; J Neurophysiol 2012).

Phosphoenix connection

Chen co-founded Phosphoenix in 2019 alongside pieter-roelfsema and CEO Bert Monna during her NIN senior researcher period. She is one of the two key scientific inventors; her move to the Pitt Chen Lab means the US-side translational and clinical design work (Utah array stability, electrode biocompatibility, stimulation artefact removal) is now run from Pittsburgh, while Roelfsema’s NIN group remains the European lead and SIGHTED scientific coordinator.

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3589-1750

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