Prof Fei Chen is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Antifungal Drug Discovery and Development in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a research group at the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research.

Her research sits at the intersection of molecular microbiology, chemical biology and drug discovery, with a particular focus on developing new treatments for drug-resistant fungal infections. She investigates how the organisation of fungal cell membranes and lipid asymmetry influence cellular function and susceptibility to antifungal drugs, with the aim of identifying new vulnerabilities that can be targeted therapeutically.

Her group also uses synthetic biology to engineer Streptomyces bacteria, helping to uncover previously inaccessible natural products with potential antifungal activity. By combining microbial genetics, fungal pathogenesis and chemical biology, her research aims to translate new insights into the development of next-generation antifungal therapies.