Scott Chin

Professional Background

‌Scott was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and graduated from UCLA in 2021 with a degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. As an undergraduate, Scott completed his honors thesis under Dr. Maureen Su where he studied the epigenetic regulation of T cell and NK cell function at homeostasis, viral infection, and autoimmunity through basic science and computational methods with a focus on next generation sequencing applications. Following graduation, Scott joined Dr. Anusha Kalbasi’s lab as a research associate in the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology to develop novel treatment modalities for undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma involving a combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy to reprogram the immune cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Scott is currently working in Dr. David Akhavan’s laboratory as an M.D./Ph.D. student at the KUMC MSTP, focusing on tuning and enhancing CAR T cell function and survival in a hostile immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment through a variety of genetic and pharmacological approaches. His research interest lies in the multifaceted role of the immune system and the complex signals and stimuli that dictate an effective, sustained response to cancer. Scott hopes to develop cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic approaches to train the immune system as potent, targeted responders to a variety of tumor models with limited off-target toxicities.