Professor Chen’s research has spanned more than three decades, encompassing bioinformatics, genome informatics, and the study of non-coding RNAs and their regulatory functions. He participated in the assembly and gene annotation of the first complete genome sequence produced in China, that of Thermotoga maritima B4, and contributed to the Human Genome Project’s 1% sequencing effort and the development of the rice genome draft. He is the principal architect of NONCODE, an international database of non-coding RNAs and their genes, and NPInter, a database documenting interactions between non-coding RNAs and other biological macromolecules. These resources have provided widely used platforms for research into non-coding RNA biology and genome regulation. He has authored more than 300 SCI-indexed publications and, since 1996, has delivered more than twenty invited keynote and symposium presentations at international conferences. His contributions to genome informatics were recognised at the 15th CODATA Conference in Tsukuba, Japan, where he was invited to deliver the Kotani Memorial Lecture and received the Kotani Prize in the Biological Sciences in 1996. Through leadership of major national research programmes and participation in international collaborative networks, Professor Chen has contributed to the development of data-driven approaches to theoretical biology and to a deeper understanding of the regulatory complexity of genomes, particularly the biological roles and interactions of non-coding RNAs.