Zigui Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an honorary associate professor at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Hong Kong. He is a member of the Papillomaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and serves as a Scientific Advisor for the Papillomavirus Episteme (PaVE) project under NIAID/NIH.

Chen’s research focuses on microbial evolution and bioinformatics. He utilises large-scale datasets to investigate community dynamics and host–microorganism interactions within the human microbiome, mycobiome, and virome. His work also explores the genomic diversity and carcinogenic potential of human papillomaviruses (HPV) and the human microbiome in cancers such as cervical cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Additionally, Chen employs omics and bioinformatics approaches to study the genomics, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of emerging respiratory infections, including COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and bacterial pneumonia.