Scott Varney Email & Phone Number

Oaklyn, Nj, Us

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Sr. Research Investigator - Department of Cancer Biology April 2024 – present• Led team of bioinformaticians and an immunologist in developing a flow cytometry analysis pipeline that outputs ‘contact-sheet’ of plots representing statistically significant changes in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) using robust-statistical methods.• Collaborated with immunologist to perform TIL analysis from inducible pyroptosis tumor models (see tet-inducible lentiviral expression system details below).• Developed protocol for sample collection of conditioned media for proteomic secretome-analysis to meet Broad Institute QC-standards and collected the first sample sets submitted by our lab.• Completed progress reports for Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence (MRIE) progress reports.• Presented at the Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence (MRIE) annual retreat 2024.• Supervised technician to design and clone of 5 additional lentiviral expression vectors.• Supervised technicians and graduate students to generate 4 additional CRISPR knockout cell-line models.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Research Associate - Department of Cancer Biology • Designed and cloned a novel, single vector, tet-inducible, lentiviral expression plasmid, designed to reduce antigenicity of the tet-transactivator to prevent immune rejection. Performed in vitro validation tests that demonstrating superior doxycycline sensitivity compared to older systems. Performed in vivo validation experiments demonstrating inducible expression in immune competent animals without rejection, while confirming that older tetR-based systems led to rejection in immune competent animals using the same cell line. This system has generated data in Wilski et. al., Cancer Discov. 2024 (In Revision) and is currently supporting 3 additional projects.• Personally generated over 10 transgenic tumor model cell lines, and directed technicians/colleagues to generate over 20 additional models.• Assessed tumor growth and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in tet-regulated transgenic tumor cell-lines that undergo inflammatory cell death (pyroptosis) in response to doxycycline.• Authored multiple molecular biology protocols (e.g. molecular cloning, qPCR, detection of gene editing) and taught graduate students, technicians, and postdocs relevant skills (PCR, primer design, T7EI, etc).• Gave a CRISPR mini-course to multiple labs (Jefferson and Drexel Universities).• Interviewed candidate technicians and subsequently trained recommended candidate in CRISPR and molecular cloning technologies, who generated 4 new knockout cell lines, submitted samples for RNAseq and RPPA analysis within the first 5 months.• Collaborated with co-investigators to obtain a Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence Pilot Award to investigate metabolic inhibitor-induced inflammatory cell death (2023).• Mentored 3-5 PhD candidates and 4-6 research technicians.• Presented research in working group meetings (e.g. immunogenic cell death and uveal melanoma clinician working groups).• Completed DoD final progress report 2023.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Department of Cancer Biology Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA • Awarded for postdoctoral mentorship of 4 PhD candidate graduate students and 4 research technicians.• Developed state-of-the-art CRISPR (Cas9 RNP nucleofection) and single cell cloning protocols leading to generation of 19 knockout clones targeting 3 genes in 3 independent cell lines including a BAP1-defficient Uveal Melanoma cell line in which both in-lab and commercially sourced attempts previously failed.• Generated 6 overexpression murine melanoma cell lines enabling syngeneic tumor models to study effects on immune tumor microenvironment.• Presented findings to Uveal Melanoma Oncologists, fostering collaboration, garnering key insights from top research oncologists and access to rare patient tumor samples.• Initiated an independent collaboration with clinical researchers at Jefferson that enabled learning the process of mining clinical databases (e.g. TriNetX).• Collaborated with co-investigators to obtain a Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence Pilot Award to investigate the effect of BAP1-deficiency on inflammatory signaling in Uveal Melanoma (2022).• Peer-reviewed an article in the journal; Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research.• Completed DoD progress report 2022.

Albany, New York Area

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Cell/Cellular And Molecular Biology

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Biochemistry And Molecular Biology