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Research overview
Research overview
Understanding Protein and RNA Regulation of Gene Expression Through Chromatin Structure in Myeloid Cell Development, Innate Immune Function, and Disease
Understanding Protein and RNA Regulation of Gene Expression Through Chromatin Structure in Myeloid Cell Development, Innate Immune Function, and Disease
Myeloid cells, such as macrophages and microglia, play crucial roles in the body’s defense against infections and in neuroprotection. Abnormalities in their function or maturation can contribute to a wide range of diseases. At the Trinh Laboratory, we use both experimental and computational approaches to investigate how biomolecules including proteins and RNAs act at the chromatin level to regulate the activity of key genes involved in normal myeloid cell maturation, innate immune functions, myeloid cell–disease cell communication, and drug responses. Additionally, we are developing strategies—both experimental and computational—to target biomolecules that influence enhancer and promoter activities. Our ultimate goals are to identify actionable molecular targets and diagnostic biomarkers, and to develop innovative therapeutic strategies for devastating diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
Trinh lab welcomes enquiries from energetic and self-driven UVA students, postdoc applicants, and volunteers. Please follow instructions in our Join us page for more details on how to apply. A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available for applicants. Our lab is also open for inquiries about graduate student rotations and internships.
Sept 2025. Congrats Hien La, a VNU undergraduate student co-advised by Drs. Trinh and Nguyen, for receiving a conference travel scholarship and best poster award at the NanoBioCoM2025 International Symposium on Nano Life Science. Dr. Trinh was also an invited speaker at the same event.
August 2025. We are grateful to the UVACCC Cancer Biology (CBIO) Research Program for supporting our collaborative team with new pilot grants dedicated to ligand screening for our cancer target. We also sincerely thank the reviewers for their valuable feedback and suggestions. Congratulations to our Data Science Master's students on completing their capstone projects in virtual drug screening, especially Alanna, who has finished her Master’s degree in Data Science.
June 2025. We thank the UVACCC Cancer Therapeutics (CRX) Research Program and the UVACCC Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) for supporting our collaborative team with new pilot grants focused on testing potential drugs for chemo-resistant Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and we appreciate the reviewers for their helpful suggestions.
May 2025 - Congrats to our postdoctoral research associate, Dr. Wali, on winning a poster award at our annual Pathology Research Day! He will also present his research at the 2025 UVA Postdoctoral Research Symposium, which features work from postdocs at both UVA and Virginia Tech.
April 2025 - April is a significant month for scientific presentations in our group. Dr. Trinh will deliver a virtual talk at the 6th International Conference on Cell and Experimental Biology (CEB-2025) on regulation of enhancers. Our postdoc, Dr. Wali will give a podium presentation on a gene regulatory circuit in blood development and cancer at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and a poster presentation at our annual Pathology research day. Additionally, our undergraduate students—Misha, Malena, and Nazifa—will present a poster on small molecules targeting chemo-resistant cells at the annual UVA Undergraduate Research Symposium.
March 2025 - Dr. Trinh and Dr. Adam Tashman, Director of the Capstone Program at UVA School of Data Science, have formed a collaborative team with the participation of three master students from the School of Data Science to perform virtual drug screening on our targets. We congratulate our collaborator, Simone Ummarino at Tufts University, for publishing a nice review paper in the Genes journal, read more.
Feb 2025 - Our research manuscript on identifying a PU.1/enhancer RNA-mediated feed-forward regulatory loop in monocyte/macrophage development and innate immune functions, using computational and experimental approaches, is available on Bioarchive.
Jan 2025 - Our abstract on feed-forward gene regulation in the development and functions of blood cells, as well as cancer, has been accepted for oral presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Trinh is excited to join the Early Investigator Advancement Program (EIAP) of the National Cancer Institute as an EIAP scholar. Our postdoc associate, Wali, won an UVA Cancer Center Travel Award!
Nov 2024 - Dr. Trinh gave a seminar on the genetic regulation of myeloid cell development and acute myeloid leukemia at the College of Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University. Our research associate, Dr. Wali, presented our work on the RNA-protein feedforward loop in innate immune cell development and functions at our UVA Center for RNA Science and Medicine.
Oct 2024 - Kevin’s manuscript has just been accepted! Congratulations to our students, Kevin, Duc, Leran, Nicholas, and Anna! We thank the reviewers for their helpful suggestions and our collaborators for supporting the project. The Trinh lab has also won a DAC Analytics Resource Award that provides computing resources and initiates our collaborative effort with a molecular docking expert at the UVA Data Analytics Center to develop virtual screening for our drug targets.
Sept 2024 - Dr. Trinh was invited to join Special Emphasis Panel/Scientific Review Group of the National Institute of Health for peer reviewing grant applications.
June 2024. We thank the National Cancer Center Institute for supporting the Trinh lab with a new R21 grant focusing on the role of long noncoding RNAs in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We appreciate the reviewers for their helpful suggestions and our collaborators and co-investigators for their support!
May 2024. This month, we have much to congratulate and celebrate. Our medical student, Kevin Qiu, received a competitive award for his first-author research poster presentation at UVA Computing Day. Our UVA undergraduate students, Anna Bookstaver and Natalie Segovia, received job offers right after graduating—Anna will join a biotech company, while Natalie will join a clinical department at UVA. Our summer interns, Ellie Obber and Duc Vu, will also advance in their career paths; Ellie will take a post-baccalaureate position at the National Institutes of Health, and Duc will be a research technician in a lab at Indiana University. Additionally, our former undergraduate student, Miguel Fuentes, received admissions to several prestigious medical school programs, including Yale.
April 2024. We thank the 4-VA program for supporting Dinh & Trinh collaborative research team (VCU & UVA) with a pilot award to explore computational and experimental approaches in cancer drug discovery. Congrats our Emilia/Anna team on a review manuscript in press in Frontiers in Biosciences.
Feb 2024. We thank the Hematologic Malignancies Translational Research Team, UVA Cancer Center for the pilot award (Craig & Trinh collaborative team) to study noncoding RNAs in cancer relapse. We congratulate our collaborator Thang Dinh for a VCU Quest Award of a pilot study applying quantum computing in drug discovery with our molecular target. Dinh & Trinh collaborative team has generated research manuscript and abstract submissions for upcoming ColdSpring Harbour conference.
Jan 2024. Congrats our medical student Kevin and his team on a manuscript on bioarchive and broadcasted by ScienceCast submitted research manuscript
Dec 2023. Dr. Trinh talked about our the research program on UVA School of Medicine Medicine in Motion News, learn more. We appreciate the the Center for Systems Analysis of Stress-Adapted Cancer Organelles (SASCO) and the UVACCC Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) for pilot funding award!
Nov 2023. We congratulate our summer intern Ellie on first-author poster presentation at the Annual Biomedical Research conference for minoritized scientists (ABRCMS) and our UVA medical student Kevin on the acceptance of abstract for the Medical Student Research Symposium with first-author poster presentation.
Oct 2023. We deposited our dataset associated with our study on RUNX1 as an RNA-binding transcription factor in blood cell development and diseases. Gene Expression Omnibus. Accession: GSE244530.
Sept 2023 - Dr. Trinh was selected to join the National Institute of Health Early Career Reviewer Program and reviewing grants! Ellie presented her summer research in the Trinh lab at the Summer research Symposium and Leadership Alliance National Symposium in Hartford, CT.
May 2023 - Congrats our students, Miguel on finishing undergraduate thesis and graduated from Harvard College, and Anna on receiving the Gerald Bass Scholarship as a top UVA Chemistry undergraduate student!
April 2023 - Dr. Trinh gave a talk at the UVA Department of Pathology Annual Research Day. Interesting preliminary finding from our student's work on cancer drug response was included. We thank them for their contribution!
Dec 2022 - Trinh lab has been awarded The American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant for our pilot study about the role of noncoding RNAs in leukemia. We thank the committee and the society for valuable support!
Nov 2022 - Dr. Trinh presented Trinh's lab research findings at the 23rd International RUNX Conference in San Antonio. It was a unique meeting where science and and Texan culture met. Thanks the organizers for the invitation!
Oct 2022 - Trinh lab is now part of the UVA Research Computing community. We look forward to utilizing the computing power for our genome-wide analyses and initiating/participating in collaborative projects.
Sep 2022 - Trinh lab is now part of the Molecular Genetics & Epigenetics Program at UVA Cancer Center, one of 53 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Trinh discussed research program of the Trinh lab at the UVA Cancer Center Seminar Series. Congrats Dan and the BIDMC/Harvard team on the paper "PU.1-c-Jun interaction is crucial for PU.1 function in myeloid development" at the final steps of being published in Communications Biology. Happy to be part of the team moving this important study to the finish line. Learn more
Aug 2022 - Dr. Trinh will be giving a talk at the FASEB meeting on The RNA Associated Mechanisms in Immunity and Disease. Dr. Trinh received an award notice for a Harvard Medical School Faculty Fellowship to support his pilot study on developing therapy targeting chromatin structure in cancer.
Mar 2022 - Congrats Miguel on getting another PRISE fellowship from Harvard College and continuing summer internship under Dr. Trinh's direct supervision.
Jan 2022 - Dr. Trinh to join a working group to Advance Health Equity through Curricula Innovation at Harvard Medical School.
Nov 2021 - Congrats Annalisa's group on their paper on DNA methylation and cell differentiation has been published in Cells! Happy to be part of the team. Learn more
Oct 2021 - Our papers published in the Blood Journal received editorial commentary. Learn more. Excited to be be an attendee of the UPenn/CHOP-The Cell and Gene Therapy Toolkit for Junior Faculty course sponsored by the NASDC with colleagues from different parts of the US. Looking forward to attaining new tools and collaboration to translate basic research finding toward therapeutic applications.
Apr 2021 - Our research paper on noncoding RNA/transcription factor/transcription factor fusion crosstalk in leukemia has been accepted! Blood J impact factor has increased to 22.11. Thanks our team effort and support from our collaborators. Learn more. Congrats Philipp's group on their paper on promoters competition for enhancer in blood development and leukemia being accepted in the Blood Journal. Happy to be part of the team. Learn more
Mar 2021 - Congrats Miguel on getting a PRISE fellowship from Harvard College and will be doing summer internship with our group.
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