Darwin Kwok, MS
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
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)
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
Immunotherapy approaches in IDH-mutant low-grade glioma.
Gallus M, Kwok D, Lakshmanachetty S, Yamamichi A, Okada H.
(2023) Cancers 22;15(14):3726.
PD-1 maintains CD8 T cell tolerance towards cutaneous neoantigens.
Damo M, Hornick N, Venkat A, William I, Clulo K, Cui C, Venkatesan S, He J, Loza J, Kwok D, Tal A, Buck J, Singh J, Damsky W, Leventhal J, Krishnaswamy S, Fagerberg E, Joshi N.
(2023) Nature. 619(7968):151-159.
T-Cell based therapies for overcoming neuroanatomical and immunosuppressive challenges within the glioma microenvironment.
Kwok D, Okada H.
Journal of Neuro-Oncology (2020).147, 281-295.