Keywords: Single-cell sequencing, RNA sequencing, 10X Genomics, Lung Cancer, NSCLC, Human Immunology, NK cells

Nicholas Asby (he/his)

PhD Student, University of Chicago

Nick Asby is a third year PhD Student in Dr. Jun Huang’s lab at the University of Chicago. For his thesis work, Nick is studying the suppression of NK cells in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). He collaborates closely with the UChicago Section of Thoracic Surgery and computational biologists to analyze patient specimens with high-dimensional methods.

Nick received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia (UVA). He was first exposed to research by his academic advisor, Dr. Jennifer Munson, who graciously invited Nick to explore and implement tissue clearing methods for the lab. Dr. Mete Civelek later fanned his interest in research and supervised Nick as he worked on a project characterizing phenotypic differences in smooth muscle cells from patients with coronary artery disease. Throughout his undergraduate experience, Nick participated greatly in teaching-related activities like TA-ing classes and developing a biomedical engineering teaching kit for his senior capstone project. 

After university Nick worked as a teaching assistant, learning basics of pedagogy and developing culturally-relevant curriculum for a high school in Richmond, VA. He returned to academia a year later to start his PhD at the University of Chicago, where he has remained involved in teaching and mentoring through the Chicago Center for Teaching, myCHOICE at UChicago, and undergraduate mentoring. Outside the lab Nick loves skating, basketball, and eating everything.