Ingfei Chen is a writer and editor in Northern California who likes telling stories about medicine, science and the environment. Her articles have published in The New York Times, Science, KQED Mindshift, Scientific American and Smithsonian, among others.
Ingfei Chen
Freelance writer
From this contributor
What baby siblings can teach us about autism
Studies of infants at risk for autism have not yielded a test to predict who will eventually be diagnosed. But they have transformed our understanding of the condition.
The gene hunters
Criss-crossing the globe on a quest for unusual DNA, researchers have discovered a rare mutation that promises insights into both epilepsy and autism — and points to a treatment.
Wide awake: Why children with autism struggle with sleep
Half of children who have autism have trouble falling or staying asleep, which may make their symptoms worse. Scientists are just beginning to explore what goes wrong in the midnight hour.
Wide awake: Why children with autism struggle with sleep
By
Ingfei Chen
7 October 2015 | 15 min read
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Nuclear location helps control gene activity during brain development
A study of developing human brain tissue suggests that genes switch on more strongly when they move from the nucleus’s edge toward structures that contain proteins involved in making and processing RNA.
Nuclear location helps control gene activity during brain development
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Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule
The cultured spheres typically mimic only prenatal development, but the five-year-old ones grown in Paola Arlotta’s lab acquired postnatal features.
Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule
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Claudia López Lloreda
19 August 2026 | 5 min read