Group Members
Nham Tran PhD
Laboratory Head and Senior Lecturer Centre for Health Technologies Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney -UTS web site I carried out my PhD at Johnson and Johnson Research with Greg Arndt and Ian Dawes and received my award from The University of New South Wales in 2006. During my PhD we used long dsRNA as a potential tool to regulate genes in mammalian cells (FEBS Lett: 2004 Aug 27;573(1-3):127-34). Further to this, we developed a dual promoter cassette to express siRNAs in mammalian cells (BMC Biotechnol. 6;3:21).
I left Johnson and Johnson Research after my PhD and spent 7 years undertaking post-doctoral research at University of Sydney and The Centenary Institute. During my postdoc at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney University, working with Prof Chris O’Brien and A/Prof. Barbara Rose, we publish several studies on miRNAs in head and neck cancer (Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007 Jun 22;358(1):12-7). In a subsequent study we further showed that miRNAs were dysregulated in salivary tumors and the PLAG1 gene was susceptible to miRNA regulation (Int J Cancer. 2009, 15;124(12):2855-63). In 2010, I was awarded a 3 year UTS Chancellors Fellowship to explore the use of ncRNAs as bio-markers in cancer and in 2013, I started my own independent team at The Center of Health Technologies, UTS. |
Samantha Khoury
AFGW Fellow & Graduate Student Samantha is a Australian Federation of Graduate Women Fellow and joined the group in 2011 as an honors student and graduated with first class honors. She continued on to a PhD program and is focused on discovering novel small RNA bio-markers for the early diagnosis of head and neck cancers. Samantha's work has already identified a suite of diagnostic serum miRNAs which are currently being tested in patients with oral SCCs. Her interest for bio marker discovery saw her attend the Wellcome Trust Advanced Course: Functional Genomics and Systems Biology, 2013. She hopes to use miRNA Seq to further characterize the expression of these small RNAs in other subsets of head and neck cancers. Samantha's work has been recognized by numerous awards . Australian Federation of Graduate Women Fellow 2014 Translational Cancer Research Network, PhD Top-up award 2013 UTS Student Winner at the UniQuest Trailblazer Competition 2012 UTS Best Pitch Winner at the UniQuest Trailblazer Competition 2012 Northern Translational Cancer Research Unit Scholar Award 2012 Best Junior Poster Award, Kolling Scientific Research Meeting (SRM) 2012. Dean’s Merit List for excellence in research 2012, UTS. 
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Danya Mason
Honours Student Dayna graduated with a Bachelor in Forensic Biology and Biomedical science from the University of Technology Sydney in 2016. During her studies, Dayna discovered a particular interest in molecular biology and an appreciation for the complexity of DNA and the mechanisms controlling its expression. Dayna has joined the team as an honours student in 2017 and is currently working on a project that explores the association between HPV16 and the expression of non-coding RNAs, such as miRNAs, in oral cancers. |
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Meredith Hill
Honours Student Meredith graduated with a Bachelor of Forensic Biology in Biomedical Science from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2016. During her degree, Meredith developed an interest in the dysregulation of cellular processes which result in disease, with a particular interest in the mechanisms that control DNA. Meredith has joined the team as an honours student in 2017. Her project focuses on investigating the interactions between the miRNAs and their role in head and neck cancer. |
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Karl Francisco
Karl is an undergraduate software student working on the living data maps project. He is involved in developing a pipeline or GUI for the scientific community to import their data and transform multidimensional data points onto an interactive data organism. Specifically, he will focus on delivering a pipeline for creating D3 Data Driven Documents (https://d3js.org/ ). |
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Fiona Deutsch
Fiona graduated with a Bachelor in Forensic Science at Bond University in 2014 and in 2015, and moved to Sydney to pursue further study. In May, 2017, she graduated with a Masters in Forensic Biology at UTS and have since joined the Tran Lab as an Honorary Research Associate. Her research is in the detection of saliva-based small RNA biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. |
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William graduated from the College of Traditional Chinese medicine, UTS with the bachelor degree of Health Science in Traditional Chinese medicine in 2016. Currently, he is engaging in a PhD study with Dr Sean Walsh , on the topic of "The effect of Chinese herbal medicine compounds on non-coding RNAs expression and the immune response to cancer: a transcriptome analysis" His interest and passion for the Chinese herbal treatments of cancer. |
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Current Students
Alumni
Jaye Lu PhD
Postdoctoral Scientist - 2013-2015 Jaye graduated with BSc in Biomedical Science at UTS in 2009. During her undergraduate studies, Jaye was awarded with a Summer Scholarship with Prof. Liz Harry at UTS and worked as a part-time research assistant in her research team focusing on bacterial cell division on Bacillus subtilis. In 2010, Jaye commenced her PhD, aimed at investigating the mechanisms of New Zealand honeys on bacterial biofilm associated chronic wounds, PLoS ONE 8 (2): e55898 and PeerJ. 2014 Mar 25;2:e326. She also has an interest in bacterial biofilms and contributed to a study that showed the self-organization of bacterial biofilms was facilitated by extracellular DNA, Gloag et al, PNAS 2013. Jaye was also awarded with UTS IRS and Faculty of Science scholarships. She has excellent laboratory skills and would be an asset to any lab setting. |
Silvia Vicente i Rizo
Internship student Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona - 2015 Silvia is an exchange student from Spain who is a part of the research team during her time studying at UTS. She is an undergraduate student pursuing her last year of Biochemistry. Her interest for non-coding-RNAs developed while she was studying her degree at Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona). In 2013, she joined BERG (Biomedical Electronics Research Group University of Pompeu Fabra, UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) research group, the main focus of her project group was in designing and testing needles which prevent infection during prostate biopsy. The project was presented by her colleague and her at the Young Science Meetings (YSM) in Portugal, which was organized by the AJC. |
Pamela Ajuyah PhD
Pamela started her PhD in 2012 having just finished her honors at The University of Sydney. She graduated with first class honors and was awarded a Australian Postgraduate Award to pursue a PhD in miRNAs. Pamela's interest in small RNAs started in undergraduate studies when she was awarded two University of Sydney Summer scholarships (2009, 2010). This allowed her to work in research labs focusing on miRNA themes. Her project was centered on the role of two miRNAs and their co-operative regulation to a tumor suppressor gene important in head and neck cancers.
In 2012, Pam was awarded a EMBL travel scholarship to attend and present her work at the 2012 PhD symposium in Heidelberg Germany. In 2013 , she was awarded the BioInfoSummer travel grant, Translational Cancer Research Network travel scholarship, UKRNA and the Lorne Genome student travel bursaries. She is also the recipient of the TCRN PhD Top-up award. Pamela was awarded her PhD in early 2017.
Pamela started her PhD in 2012 having just finished her honors at The University of Sydney. She graduated with first class honors and was awarded a Australian Postgraduate Award to pursue a PhD in miRNAs. Pamela's interest in small RNAs started in undergraduate studies when she was awarded two University of Sydney Summer scholarships (2009, 2010). This allowed her to work in research labs focusing on miRNA themes. Her project was centered on the role of two miRNAs and their co-operative regulation to a tumor suppressor gene important in head and neck cancers.
In 2012, Pam was awarded a EMBL travel scholarship to attend and present her work at the 2012 PhD symposium in Heidelberg Germany. In 2013 , she was awarded the BioInfoSummer travel grant, Translational Cancer Research Network travel scholarship, UKRNA and the Lorne Genome student travel bursaries. She is also the recipient of the TCRN PhD Top-up award. Pamela was awarded her PhD in early 2017.
Leonie Herson
Masters Student
Leonie graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science in 2015; during which she completed an undergraduate project under the joint supervision of Prof. Stella Valenzuela and Dr. Bruce Cornell at Surgical Diagnostics where she learned how to develop and utilize artificial lipid bilayer membranes as well as create 3D lipid models. It was at the same time that she also commenced her studies in 2D and 3D animation, where she learned how to use professional animation software such as Maya, leading to an interest in biomedical animation.
Leonie has a Masters degree combining Science Research and Design animation involving the application of tethered membranes for the detection and screening of spontaneous membrane inserting proteins and exosome particles. Her goal is to create a short film explaining the rising interest in microvesicles and cancer research. Leonie is also an experienced freelance Scientific Illustrator and has recently won an award for her work in the annual VizbiPlus Challenge competition. Leonie is a collaborative student from the Valenzuela lab from School of Life Sciences, UTS.
Masters Student
Leonie graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science in 2015; during which she completed an undergraduate project under the joint supervision of Prof. Stella Valenzuela and Dr. Bruce Cornell at Surgical Diagnostics where she learned how to develop and utilize artificial lipid bilayer membranes as well as create 3D lipid models. It was at the same time that she also commenced her studies in 2D and 3D animation, where she learned how to use professional animation software such as Maya, leading to an interest in biomedical animation.
Leonie has a Masters degree combining Science Research and Design animation involving the application of tethered membranes for the detection and screening of spontaneous membrane inserting proteins and exosome particles. Her goal is to create a short film explaining the rising interest in microvesicles and cancer research. Leonie is also an experienced freelance Scientific Illustrator and has recently won an award for her work in the annual VizbiPlus Challenge competition. Leonie is a collaborative student from the Valenzuela lab from School of Life Sciences, UTS.
