The goal of Chinfei Chen's research is to provide insight into neurological disorders that result from aberrant synaptic connections, such as some forms of epilepsy and mental retardation. To this end, she and her colleagues are working to understand synaptic mechanisms that underlie developmental synaptic remodeling and contribute to the processing of information in the immature and mature central nervous system.

In one line of investigation, her lab focuses on how firing patterns of retinal ganglion cells are decoded into the output of the thalamocortical relay neurons. They are interested in understanding how specific retinal firing patterns and how ascending neurotransmitter systems from the brainstem alter the strength of the retinogeniculate synapse.

Another area of her research examines the factors that are important in the formation and refinement of synaptic connections during development. The Chen lab has characterized the convergence of the retinogeniculate synapse during development as multiple inputs are eliminated and the remaining synaptic inputs are strengthened. Using this normal developmental sequence for comparison, they have begun to eludicate the roles of specific molecular cues and neuronal electrical activity in synapse maturation.

Chinfei Chen received an MD/PhD from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. She trained in adult Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and as a postdoctoral fellow in the Neurobiology Department at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty at Children's Hospital.

She was a 2001 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.