Brent Y. Chick

Research

My work focuses on understanding how chromatin remodeling complexes — particularly BAF (SWI/SNF) — interpret cellular signals to reshape the epigenetic landscape and drive gene expression programs in immune cells. Using a combination of genomics, epigenomics, and bioengineering approaches, I study how transcription and chromatin remodeling are coordinated at gene regulatory elements and how these mechanisms control T cell differentiation and function.

My research has been published in Nature, Nature Genetics, Immunity, Nature Methods, Cell Stem Cell, Cell Reports, The Journal of Immunology, and Blood. Prior to joining Dr. Diana Hargreaves' lab at the Salk, I did my MA at UCSB with Dr. Max Wilson, performed research at UCLA under Dr. Gay Crooks and Dr. Chris Seet, and completed my BS at UCSD while working in the lab of Dr. Stephen Hedrick.

Publications

• Atlas-guided discovery of transcription factors for T cell programming
  Chung HK, Chen S, Engel BJ, Bhatt RR, Li Y, Fang Q, Yang S, Zhang C, Coles GL, Bhatt DL, Pan X, Li Y, Li T, Rathore APS, Wen D, Adachi K, Song L, Brent Chick, Hargreaves DC, Zhang K, Bhatt DL, Wang W. Nature, 2026.
• The antiviral Interferon pathway drives astrocyte aging and motor decline
  Labarta-Bajo L, Bhatt DL, Bhatt RR, Ye H, Brent Y Chick, Hargreaves DC, Allen NJ. bioRxiv, 2025.
• RNA polymerase II promoter-proximal pausing promotes BAF chromatin binding and remodeling
  Brent Y Chick, Hargreaves DC. Nature Genetics, 2024.
• Canonical BAF complex activity shapes the enhancer landscape that licenses CD8+ T cell effector and memory fates
  McDonald B^†, Brent Y Chick^†, Ahmed MY, Burns E, Ma S, Casero D, Bhatt DL, Kaech SM. Immunity, 2023. ^†Co-first author
• Early Chromatin Remodeling Events in Acutely Stimulated CD8+ T Cells
  McDonald B^†, Brent Y Chick^†, Hargreaves DC, Kaech SM. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 2023. ^†Co-first author
• Switching under selection: how CoREST controls endocrine therapy resistance in ER+ breast cancer
  Brent Y Chick, Hargreaves DC. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2022.
• In Vitro Recapitulation of Murine Thymopoiesis from Single Hematopoietic Stem Cells
  Montel-Hagen A, Sun V, Casero D, Tsai S, Zampieri A, Jackson N, Li S, Lopez S, Zhu Y, Brent Chick, He C, de Barros SC, Seet CS, Crooks GM. Cell Reports, 2020.
• Pleiotropic Roles of VEGF in the Microenvironment of the Developing Thymus
  de Barros SC, Suterwala BT, He C, Ge S, Brent Chick, Blumberg GK, Kim K, Klein S, Zhu Y, Wang X, Casero D, Crooks GM. The Journal of Immunology, 2020.
• Organoid-induced differentiation of conventional T cells from human pluripotent stem cells
  Montel-Hagen A, Seet CS, Li S, Brent Chick, Zhu Y, Chang P, Tsai S, Sun V, Lopez S, Chen HC, He C, Chin CJ, Casero D, Crooks GM. Cell Stem Cell, 2019.
• Notch Signaling Regulates the Differentiation of CLEC9A+ Dendritic Cells (cDC1) From Human and Mouse Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells
  Seet CS, Li S, Brent Chick, Casero D, Kim J, Gschweng E, Chen HC, Zhu Y, Lopez S, Miao R, Montel-Hagen A, Kohn D, Sehl M, Crooks GM. Experimental Hematology, 2018.
• Generation of mature T cells from human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in artificial thymic organoids
  Seet CS, He C, Bethune MT, Li S, Brent Chick, Gschweng EH, Zhu Y, Kim K, Kohn DB, Baltimore D, Crooks GM, Montel-Hagen A. Nature Methods, 2017.