Rate My Professor Tung Tran

Tung Tran serves as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. He obtained his B.S. degree from Hanoi University of Sciences in Vietnam and Ph.D. in stem cell biology from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. Following his doctoral studies, Tran pursued postdoctoral research first in Dr. Xinyang Zhao’s group at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he investigated cancer biology, biochemistry, and hematopoiesis. Subsequently, he worked in Klaus Rajewsky’s laboratory at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, concentrating on hematopoiesis, lymphomagenesis, and immunity. In May 2021, he joined the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University to initiate his independent research program within the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, part of the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Biology program.

The research in Tran’s laboratory focuses on hematopoietic malignancies and developing gene therapy for blood disorders using CRISPR/Cas9 platforms. The team models monogenic disorders, corrects mutations in patient-derived hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) at loci such as HBB, FANCG, and ELANE with high precision and minimal off-target effects, and identifies therapeutic targets for multiple myeloma in collaboration with other IU groups. Core interests encompass HSPCs, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), hematopoiesis, and related immunological processes. Tran has authored numerous impactful publications, including "Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 is a therapeutic vulnerability in multiple myeloma" (Frontiers in Immunology, 2023); "Precise CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene repair with minimal off-target and unintended on-target mutations in human hematopoietic stem cells" (Science Advances, 2022); "Methylation of Dual Specificity Phosphatase 4 Controls Cell Differentiation" (Cell Reports, 2021); "CRISPR/Cas9-mediated ELANE mutation correction in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells to treat Severe Congenital Neutropenia" (Molecular Therapy, 2020); "Efficient homologous recombination in mouse hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells" (Cell Reports, 2019); and contributions on CRISPR enhancements, splicing dysregulation in erythroid differentiation (PLoS One, 2017), long noncoding RNA regulation of megakaryocyte differentiation (EMBO Reports, 2016), and PRMT1-mediated methylation crosstalk (eLife, 2015).