In June 1996, Chen Jianfeng graduated from the Department of Microbiology, Fudan University with a Bachelor of Science degree. In May 2001, he graduated from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with a Doctor of Science degree. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, Harvard Medical School, USA from September 2001 to January 2007. Since January 2007, he has been a research fellow and principal investigator of SIBCB, CAS.