Darwin

Darwin Kwok, MS

Graduate Student (BMS program)

Research Interests:

My research focus is dedicated towards developing noninvasive targeted therapies for brain tumors. During a joint fellowship between Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, I designed and optimized a method of treating neoplasms across bilayer membranes through sonoporation-induced drug delivery. 

At Yale University, I helped develop an accurate visualization of the kinetics in neoantigen-dependent T cell-tumor cell interactions utilizing a novel inversion-inducible joined antigen (NINJA) murine model. Notably I designed multiple MATLAB GUI softwares to access T-cell infiltration/inflammation upon NINJA induction and to volumetrically reconstruct a 3-D representation of tertiary lymphoid structures from IF images.

Here at UCSF, I'm interested in discovering novel therapeutic targets for glioblastomas using multi-dimensional in silico methods and further investigating the downstream genetic patterns associated with IDH mutations.

Email: darwin.kwok@ucsf.edu

Education and Training

2012-2017       Carnegie Mellon University (Dr. Flordeliza Villanueva M.D. and Dr. John Pacella M.D., M.S.)

2017-2018       Yale University (Dr. Nikhil Joshi Ph.D.)

2018-present  University of California, San Francisco (Dr. Hideho Okada and Dr. Joseph Costello)

Selected Awards

2015    CMU Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

2016    CMU College of Engineering Honors Research Program

2016    Biomedical Engineering Design Award

2016    Meeting of the Minds Symposium CIT Honors Research Finalist

2019    NIH Predoctoral Training in Biomedical Sciences Training Program

2022    Gianna Rae Meadows Grant Award for Oligodendroglioma Cure

2022    SITC URM Undergraduates in STEM Program Selected Presenter   

2023    Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowship

2023    21st Annual St. Jude National Graduate Student Symposium Awardee