Ken Chen

Professor, PhD, Computational scientist in cancer research, father, love music and soccer

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Registration is open for the 2026 GRC single cell cancer biology meeting March 22-27 in Ventura, CA.
https://t.co/A6hOiuIAB9
Please join our excellent lineup of speakers by submitting your applications by Feb. 22, 2026.

[UT MD Anderson @UTMDAnderson]

Results from a study open new avenues for discovering approaches to enhance the antitumor activity of CAR NK cell therapies against multiple cancer types via a comprehensive CRISPR discovery platform optimized for primary human NK cells.

Read more: https://t.co/m3wXGu3uZi @lab_rezvani #EndCancer

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Congratulations. Another visionary work from @lab_rezvani in cell therapy.

[Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D @lab_rezvani]

Delighted to share our Cancer Cell paper published today, co-authored by Dr. Alexander Biederstädt @ABiederstadt_MD and Dr. Rafet Basar @rftbsr9 reporting the first genome-wide CRISPR screen in primary cord blood NK and CAR NK cells. We identify key genetic checkpoints including MED12, ARIH2 and CCNC and show that their deletion enhances CAR NK cell antitumor activity in multiple tumor models. Congratulations to Alex for leading this study, to Rafet for his major contributions, and to all of our collaborators and co-authors for making this work possible.
https://t.co/sFJfRsatsP
@MDAndersonNews @kchenken #NK #CRISPR #immunotherapy #endcancer

[Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D @lab_rezvani]

Delighted to share our Cancer Cell paper published today, co-authored by Dr. Alexander Biederstädt @ABiederstadt_MD and Dr. Rafet Basar @rftbsr9 reporting the first genome-wide CRISPR screen in primary cord blood NK and CAR NK cells. We identify key genetic checkpoints including MED12, ARIH2 and CCNC and show that their deletion enhances CAR NK cell antitumor activity in multiple tumor models. Congratulations to Alex for leading this study, to Rafet for his major contributions, and to all of our collaborators and co-authors for making this work possible.
https://t.co/sFJfRsatsP
@MDAndersonNews @kchenken #NK #CRISPR #immunotherapy #endcancer

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Thanks. Great collaboration with Aung on irAE.

[Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer @jitcancer]

New #JITC article: Histologic and immune characterization of cutaneous immune-related adverse events induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors https://t.co/epQ2DCnuNU
@AnishaPatelMD @cara_haymaker @ANaingMD @MDAndersonNews

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

@JEFworks Congrats

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

@BoWang87 @UofT @Stanford Congrats! Way to go!

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Congrats to this amazing work. Honored to be part of it.

[Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D @lab_rezvani]

Please check out our paper published today in Nature that identifies CREM as a key checkpoint limiting CAR NK cell function.CRISPR knockout of CREM significantly enhanced anti-tumor activity, implicating a broader role in NK cell regulation. Huge congrats to @hindrafei and our

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

It was a rewarding experience working with the HPV moonshot team. Maura, Xianli, …, all great scientists. Thank MDA moonshot program for the generous support to team science, allowing us dig deep into the disease/drug mechanisms.

[Elizabeth McKenna @ElizSMcKenna]

Now online in @CD_AACR: Depletion of Effector Regulatory T Cells Associates with Major Response to Induction Dual Immune Checkpoint Blockade - by Xianli Jiang, @kchenken, Maura Gillison, and colleagues https://t.co/X7x0BZtu1S @MDAndersonNews

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

I am looking for a postdoc interested in modeling cells and other biological entities/phenomena using AI, physical modeling, and other approaches.

https://t.co/UMAZQcvdqC

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

We developed immune cell knowledge graphs (ICKGs) using LLMs to understand and annotate novel gene signatures identified from single-cell/spatial omics studies https://t.co/XmU869sU8h

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Our preprint that performs virtual NK adoptive cell therapy using agent based modeling can potentially guide cell therapy development and decision support. https://t.co/DsJUiXfNyQ

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

@lab_rezvani @MDAndersonNews Congratulations

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Join us 2026 Single-Cell Cancer Biology Conference GRC, ⁦@DLawsonlab⁩ https://t.co/A6hOiuIAB9

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Thanks @CellRepMethods for performing very professional review. Our work shows that cells transitioning into new transcriptional state in development or differentiation can be detected statistically via gene expression correlations in single cell rna-seq. Kudos @drmervedede etc

[Cell Reports Methods @CellRepMethods]

A statistical approach for systematic identification of transition cells from scRNA-seq data https://t.co/p9M5hyasRe

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

@ElizSMcKenna @CD_AACR @JingwenYang_ @NCIEytanRuppin @lenghan_bioinfo @OHSUKnight @theNCI @IUCancerCenter @iupui Congrats Leng, Eytan and Gordon.

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Congrats great milestone! Making me wonder how these are related to CHIPs. Perhaps is another “early” form of branched evolution.

[Nicholas Navin @nicholas_navin]

New paper from our group in @Nature by @YiyunLin_YL @junkewang @KaileWang and team reporting the unexpected discovery of aneuploid epithelial cells (3%) in normal breast tissues from healthy women raising the question of when is cancer really cancer?

https://t.co/uLig55dK0u

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

Congratulations! What an achievement!

[Ghayas Issa @GhayasIssa]

Menin inhibition is a standard of care! FDA approval of revumenib!! So happy to see that the benefit witnessed in patients on study is leading to a medicine to all who need it. Ready to forj ahead with more to come! ;)

[Ken Chen @kchenken]

⁦@lab_rezvani⁩ armada of novel CAR-NK trials at SITC 2024, delivered by Katy.

[May Daher @may_daher]

What an amazing culmination of so many years of hard work, dedication, passion and innovation! Congratulations @lab_rezvani on the launch of the Institute for Cell Therapy Discovery & Innovation. I am so proud and humbled to be part of the team that made this dream come true 💕 @MDAndersonNews #celltherapy #cancer #autoimmunity