News J-WAFS Community Spotlight on Victoria Chen

As a J-WAFS Fellow, Chen is studying how bacteria can be genetically engineered to help clean polluted water and applying her findings to real-world scenarios for improving the critical source of ground water.
 

Mia Jeffries, J-WAFS August 21, 2025

August is Water Quality Month! This is a month dedicated to reflecting on the importance of clean water as well as conserving the Earth’s precious water resources.

To commemorate this important month, J-WAFS is spotlighting the water-related research of Victoria Chen. Victoria is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and a 2025 - 2026 Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellow for Water Solutions, awarded by J-WAFS. She works in Professor Christopher Voigt’s lab, studying how bacteria can be genetically engineered to help clean polluted water. Previously, Victoria worked in Professor Richard Murray’s lab at the California Institute of Technology to develop improved genetic engineering tools and a novel way of deploying bacteria in soil environments.

In this video, Victoria discusses her research investigating a unique case study of engineered bacteria being used to clean up toxic phenols in Soviet-occupied Estonia. Looking through both a biological and historical lens, Victoria hopes to explore the real-world impacts of her work and improve the critical source of ground water.
 

Learn more about Victoria Chen in this video