Charles Shen

Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Charles Shen (CAS '27), and I am pursuing a double major in history and neuroscience. Freshman fall was a difficult adjustment for me. I have always had a background in the humanities and a deep love for history. But at the same time, I am deeply curious about the sciences. At first, I felt like I was constantly trying to find a balance between these two very different worlds. Over time, though, I have come to realize that they actually share a very common thread, posing a simple yet stubborn question: what makes us human?

As a history major, I study how people have endured triumph and tragedy, how they have experienced joy, sorrow, hatred, and hope. It is about remembering the human, understanding the human, and humanizing the human. In the Chen-Plotkin Lab, I investigate biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on the relationship between apolipoprotein A1 and Parkinson’s Disease pathology in mice models. I spend a lot of time feeding mice, staining target proteins via immunohistochemistry, and quantifying images. I have also become an expert (if I do say so myself) at sectioning mice brain tissue into 6-micron slices. Lately, I have also been learning how to maintain induced pluripotent stem cells and differentiate them into neurons. At the Penn Acute Research Collaboration at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, I screen the ER Tracking Board for multiple time-sensitive studies on trauma, TBI, blood transfusion, and cardiac arrests. This connects closely with my work as an EMT, something I am super passionate about and always down to talk more about.

Outside of research, I am a proud member of Penn Lions (I am a traditional Chinese lion dancer, and I specialize in the tail position)! You can also find me podcasting, pottruck-ing, shopping for t-shirts, reading Wikipedia pages of WWII battles, chilling with my rabbit (when I am back in California), or having spontaneous, sleepless sleepovers at my ambulance agency. If you are still figuring out how to juggle different interests, find research that excites you, or just want to chat about lion dancing or rabbits or EMS or anything in between, don’t hesitate to reach out!