- Scholarship in 2022 at The Rockefeller University
About Alfred Choon Kit Chin’s work
Alfred Choon Kit Chin is a biophysicist integrating structural biology and cardiology to advance our understanding of mechanobiology and develop novel therapeutics that treat cardiovascular diseases by modulating mechanical forces. The goal of his research is to elucidate molecular mechanisms of cytoskeletal mechanotransduction through structural studies of actin-binding proteins in the presence of force.
Chin is specifically working to visualise catch bonds, a unique type of noncovalent interaction that paradoxically strengthens under force. By illuminating the structural mechanisms underlying cytoskeletal mechanobiology, he hopes to catalyse the development and adoption of myosin modulators for cardiomyopathies and heart failure.
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.