Kevin Bayingana, a Bridge2Rwanda Scholar from Rwanda, came to the United States to pursue his education at Swarthmore College. During his time at Swarthmore, Kevin worked in the Collins Lab, where he focused on evaluating the neurotoxicity of synthetic chemicals using planarian worms. His primary emphasis involved assessing the behavioral responses of planarian worms exposed to neurotoxins. For his senior thesis, Bayingana delved into characterizing ion channels (TRPV1, TRPA1, and TRPM3) responsible for transducing noxious heat in planarian worms. He earned a major in Biology and a minor in Psychology and graduated with high honors.

In September 2023,  Bayingana joined the Wolpaw Lab at CHOP, where he is concentrating on developing an immunocompetent murine model for neuroblastoma. His day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing the cultivation of tumor cell lines and monitoring their lineage switch for the manifestation of transcriptional and inflammatory signals akin to human neuroblastoma cells in the mesenchymal state. Since joining the lab, Bayingana has not only gained knowledge in the field of cancer, particularly in solid tumors like neuroblastoma, but has also formed meaningful connections.

Bayingana is dedicated to leveraging his growing expertise to combat human cancers and aspires to become a physician and/or researcher. Beyond his research pursuits, he enjoys playing chess, watching movies/anime, and spending quality time with friends or in the gym.