- Scholarship in 2022 at The Rockefeller University
About Alfred Choon Kit Chin’s work
Alfred Choon Kit Chin is a biophysicist interested in mechanotransduction. The goal of his graduate research is to elucidate structural mechanisms of cytoskeletal mechanotransduction via cryo-EM studies of actin-binding proteins under force.
Chin is specifically working to visualise catch bonds, a unique type of noncovalent interaction that paradoxically strengthens under force. By illuminating structural mechanisms underlying cytoskeletal mechanotransduction, he aims to catalyse the development of novel therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular and renal diseases.
Biography
Alfred Choon Kit Chin is training to become a physician-scientist in the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program. He is completing his PhD in the lab of Gregory M. Alushin at The Rockefeller University as an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. Chin earned a BS in Neuroscience and Biophysics and MS in Neuroscience (advised by Solomon H. Snyder) at Johns Hopkins University.
Chin's undergraduate research on inositol pyrophosphates and glutamate receptors has led to first-author publications in Science Advances and Structure. He is the recipient of awards such as the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, Astronaut Scholarship, Johns Hopkins University Detlev W. Bronk Award in Biophysics, and Johns Hopkins University Provost's Undergraduate Research Award.