Principle Investigator

Dr. Bo Shen holds dual roles as an Assistant Investigator at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing (NIBS), and an Assistant Professor at the Tsinghua Institute of Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research (TIMBR), Tsinghua University. He earned his B.S. in Life Science from the National University of Singapore in 2008, followed by a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 2015. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Shen focused on platelets, culminating in the development of a groundbreaking anti-thrombotic drug that selectively targets platelet integrin outside-in signaling and aggregation without disrupting platelet adhesions (Nature 2013). His postdoctoral research, conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Sean Morrison at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, revealed integrin alpha11 as a receptor for the novel bone growth factor, Osteolectin. Dr. Shen further elucidated the role of Osteolectin-expressing bone marrow stromal cells in creating a mechanosensitive peri-arteriolar niche essential for osteogenesis and lymphopoiesis (Nature 2021). Currently, the Shen lab investigates the regulatory mechanisms of tissue homeostasis and regeneration, focusing on secreted factors such as growth factors and ECM proteins. Notably, their recent work delves into Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and its critical role in bone marrow innervation and hematopoietic regeneration following bone marrow transplantation.