Principal Investigator

Yanru Chen, Ph.D., BCBA

Assistant Professor of Autism

Dr. Yanru Chen is the principal investigator of the LEXA Lab and an Assistant Professor of Autism in the College of Education and Human Development at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on executive function, language and literacy development, and social communication and engagement in autistic children, including those who are minimally verbal.

After receiving her Ph.D. in Intellectual Disability and Autism at Columbia University, Dr. Chen completed her postdoctoral training at the Center for Autism Research Excellence at Boston University and was later a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

Dr. Chen has over a decade of experience working with autistic children and their families in both research and school settings as an early childhood special education teacher, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and a trained and reliable Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) clinician.

She has published across several top-tier autism journals, including Autism Research, Molecular Autism, and the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Her work was also selected as Featured Research at the International Society for Autism Research Annual Meeting and was spotlighted in the Autism Science Foundation science podcast.

Current Research Team

Katie Eisenhauer

Graduate Research Assistant

Katie is a graduate research assistant in the LEXA Lab and a graduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University. She coordinates visits for Project READ and works on natural language sample transcription and coding.

Farzana

Graduate Research Assistant

Farzana is a graduate research assistant with the LEXA Lab and a first year graduate student majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University. She assists in recruiting and coordinating participants for language and literacy development research, conducting data collection, and transcribing and coding natural discourse samples. She is passionate about increasing access to culturally responsive care in speech language pathology, and hopes to work in more marginalized communities where communication differences may be stigmatized.

Lara Lupo

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Lara is an undergraduate student majoring in Special Education at Georgia State University. Her academic and professional experiences have centered on supporting students with diverse learning needs in the elementary and middle school settings. She is passionate about language and literacy research and creating inclusive learning environment for all students. Lara coordinates visits for Project READ and works on recruitment and data management.

Lab Alumni

Brynn Siles

Lab Manager at Northeastern University

Brynn was Dr. Chen’s prior undergraduate research intern at Boston University, working on the receptive-expressive language discrepancy project. Brynn graduated from Boston University in 2023 with a B.A. in Neuroscience. Her primary interests include early childhood language development and early intervention strategies for children with autism and other NDDs. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with the goal of becoming a pediatric neuropsychologist.

Maddie Soares

Incoming Doctoral Student in Psychology and Neuroscience at UT Knoxville

Maddie was Dr. Chen’s prior undergraduate research intern at Boston University, working on the behavior engagement and parent language quality projects. Maddie graduated from Boston University in 2025 with a B.A. in Psychology & Religion. She is now a post-baccalaureate lab technician at Dartmouth College, working with Dr. Shelley Warlow on projects regarding reward and motivation in mice. Maddie is an incoming doctoral student in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

Ziyan Xie

Incoming Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology at Hofstra University

Ziyan was Dr. Chen’s prior undergraduate research intern at Boston University, working on resting-state EEG hand-editing and processing. Ziyan is a master’s student in the Eliot-Pearson Child Study and Human Development Department at Tufts University. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Psychology. Ziyan is passionate about exploring body image in marginalized adolescents and young adults, and she is an incoming doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Hofstra University.

Anne Townsend

Undergraduate Student in Neuroscience at Princeton University

Anne was Dr. Chen’s prior undergraduate research intern at Boston University, working on resting-state EEG hand-editing and processing. Anne is an undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience at Princeton University. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in Neuroscience in Europe.

Join the LEXA Lab

The LEXA Lab provides hands-on research training and experience for graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in supporting autistic children and their families through rigorous research.

Students interested in joining the lab as a graduate research assistant or volunteer can fill out the following interest form or email Dr. Chen directly. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.