In 1988, Chin graduated from Brown University, receiving magna cum laude honors for her B.S in neuroscience.
From 1994 to 1997, Chin completed her research fellowship from Albert Einstein College of Medicine where she was also chief resident of dermatology.
[6] In 2012, Chin was involved in controversial grant award by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
A Houston Chronicle investigation suggests that CPRIT her application for the approximately $18 million grant had been handled in a hasty manner designed to circumvent its own scientific reviewers.
Chin met her husband, Ronald A. DePinho, as a medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.