Our People

Quan Nguyen

Group Leader

Genomics and Machine Learning Lab

+61 7 3845 3726

quan.nguyen@qimrberghofer.edu.au

CAREER HISTORY

Dr Nguyen acquired multidisciplinary expertise at the world’s top innovative institutions in Australia (UQ, CSIRO) and internationally (RIKEN Institute and Stanford School of Medicine). With supports from multiple prestigious fellowships, including ARC DECRA and NHMRC (EL2), he established his leadership in addressing cancer complexity at single cell and tissue levels. Dr Nguyen has led multiple large-scale projects/programs, funded nationally (e.g., ARC, NHMRC, MRFF) and internationally (e.g., DoD, NCI, Wellcome Trust).

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

  • Group Leader, Senior Research Fellow; NHMRC Investigator Emerging Leadership Fellow (EL 2); Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer (QIMR), (2023-Present)
  • Group Leader, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Genomics and Machine Learning Lab, UQ, (2019-present)
  • Affiliate Senior Research Fellow, School of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, UQ, (2020-present)
  • Affiliate Investigator, ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience, (2019-present)
  • Visiting Scholar, Stanford School of Medicine, USA, (2019-present)

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

  • PhD Scholar, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland (2009-2013)
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, RIKEN Research Institute, Japan (2013-2015)
  • CSIRO OCE Research Fellow, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (2015-2016)
  • Senior Research Officer and Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience – IMB, UQ (2016-2018)
  • UQ Development Research Fellow, UQ (2018-2019)
  • Group leader, ARC DECRA Fellow (2019-2021)

ORCID NUMBER

0000-0001-7870-5703

RESEARCHER ID

D-2026-2017

CURRENT AREA OF RESEARCH

  • Developing next generation machine learning for diagnosis and prognosis from integrating spatial sequencing data and histopathological images (Spatial Cellular Pathology)
  • Predicting metastasis and disease progression using spatial data
  • Discovering new immunotherapy drug targets using ligand-receptor screening from spatial and single cell data
  • Studying neuroinflammation across space and time in the injury context (e.g., spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury), and in aging context (e.g., neuronal degenerative diseases)
  • Developing spatial multiomics technologies and computational methods to integrate spatial data with single cell and genomics data.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

My research program has advanced understandings of cellular ecosystems in health and disease:

  • Machine learning methods for combining sequencing and imaging data (Precision Oncology, 2022; Nature Communs, 2023)
  • New technological platforms and analysis of infected tissues (Nature Communs, 2023; Immunology, 2023; Front in Immunology, 2023)
  • Resolved intra- and inter-patient heterogeneity (Genome Biol, 2019 & 2021)
  • Spatially mapped cellular microenvironment (Cell, 2020; bioRxiv125658v1, 2020; J Immunother Cancer, 2020)
  • Discovered gene (dys)regulations underlying cell differentiation and proliferation (Cell Stem Cell, 2018; Nat communs 2017, 2017, 2021)
  • Found new cell types (Genome Res, 2018; EMBO journal, 2019; Genome Biol, 2021)
  • Transformed digital pathology diagnosis applications (Bioinformatics, 2020; Artificial Neural Networks, 2020; bioRxiv436004; bioRxiv125658v1)
  • Produced software to enhance analysis capability (GigaScience, 2018; Genome Biol 2019 & 2019; Cell Systems, 2020; Bioinformatics, 2020; bioRxiv125658v1)
  • Developed new genomics technologies (Nat Prot, 2018; Cell, 2020; Genome Biol, 2021).

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • OzSingleCell
  • Human Cell Atlas
  • Australian Society for Immunology
  • Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

  • Bachelor of Biotechnology with first-class honours (2004-2007, University of Queensland)
  • PhD in Bioengineering and Bioinformatics (2009-2013, University of Queensland)
  • Postdoctoral training in Bioinformatics and Transcriptomics (2013-2015)