Ning Shen

Dr. Ning Shen is a retinal biologist in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her PhD in China, focusing on the molecular guidance in retinal development. In 2017, she joined Dr. Daniel Kerschensteiner’s lab as a postdoctoral associate, investigating homeostatic plasticity in retinal degeneration. Since 2022, she has worked at the Bright Center for Human Vision as a Staff Scientist, where she develops human-derived platforms including iPSC-derived RPE, retinal organoids, and human retinal explants, with the goal of bridging the gap between animal research and clinical therapies. Her recent research combines in vivo CRISPR screens with human retinal explant models to develop neuroprotective gene therapies for retinitis pigmentosa.

She has 15 publications in scientific journals including Neuron, Nature Communications, Current Biology, Science Advances, and Journal of Neuroscience.