Chuan He works at the edge of a quiet revolution in biology. For decades scientists believed that DNA carried its code in a fixed way and that RNA simply carried out the instructions. Chuan helped show that life is more fluid. Chemical marks can be added or removed from RNA, changing how genes behave without altering the letters themselves. These marks are tiny, almost ghostlike, but they can transform the fate of a cell. His work opened the field known as RNA epigenetics (or epitranscritomics), a once controversial idea that is now a thriving branch of modern biology.
He grew up in China, drawn early to chemistry because it felt like a language for understanding the natural world. He came to the United States for graduate school and eventually walked into a scientific landscape that was full of assumptions about how genetic information worked. Chuan has always had a quiet willingness to question what everyone thinks they already understand. That instinct led him to explore methylation, a small chemical tag that cells attach to DNA and RNA. The marks are reversible and dynamic, and in many cases they act as switches that turn genes on and off.
Chuan’s most influential work came from asking a simple question. If cells can place these marks, can they also remove them. That idea was not widely accepted at the time. He and his team went searching for enzymes that could erase methyl marks and found them. The discovery changed the field. It revealed that genetic information is not static. It is tuned, adjusted, and shaped by life experience. The implications spread outward in every direction.
One branch of his work focuses on cancer. Tumors often use methylation to hide from therapies or to silence genes that would slow their growth. By targeting RNA methylation pathways, Chuan’s research opens the door to treatments that can work more effectively, not only by acting on oncogenic drivers within tumor cells but also by reshaping the tumor microenvironment to boost immune responses against cancer. It gives modern medicine an additional layer of control over how cancer cells and neighboring immune cells behave. It also introduces the possibility of combining therapies in new ways, especially in tumors that have resisted every standard approach.
Another part of his research reaches into agriculture. Plants also rely on methylation to control stress, growth, and photosynthesis. By adjusting those marks, crops can grow faster. With elevated photosynthesis, or survive harsher conditions. Chuan’s lab has shown that it is possible to dramatically increase crop yields by altering how a plant manages its chemical tags. It also offers potential to crops more resilience to extreme weathers. He talks about these projects with an understated seriousness, always aware of the scale of the problems and the potential impact of the solutions.
When I photographed him at the University of Chicago, the winter light kept moving across the lab. He spoke with a calm clarity, the kind that comes from years of thinking deeply about very small things. At the microscope he seemed completely in his element, focused and relaxed. Later we moved to a chalkboard where he sketched the ring structures and arrows that have become part of his everyday language. He draws with confidence, not to impress but to think out loud.
In person he is steady, composed, and quietly warm. There is no trace of the drama that sometimes surrounds big scientific discoveries. His voice has a grounded quality, as if he is always aware that science is built one careful step at a time. He carries none of the ego that might be expected for someone whose work has reshaped an entire field.
Chuan He continues to push biology into new territory. His work shows that the genome is not a static blueprint. It is a living script that can be edited by the cell itself. The idea feels simple once you hear him explain it, but it took a mind willing to look again at the foundations of genetics and see what others had missed. He brings that same quiet curiosity to every conversation. It is the quality that guides his science and the reason his work continues to change how we understand life.
