Dr Tuan Vo
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy
- Email:tuan.vo@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:0240550270
Career Summary
Biography
Dr Tuan Vo is an Early Career Researcher, awarded his PhD in Medical and Molecular Genetics in 2024. His academic career and professional journey are focused on uncovering the complexities of cancer biology and translating these insights into impactful clinical applications.
During Dr Vo's doctoral studies at the University of Queensland, he focused on leveraging innovative spatial-omics technologies to explore tumor heterogeneity and the interplay between tumors and their microenvironments, with a particular emphasis on children’s brain cancers such as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and Medulloblastoma. Dr Vo's work also extended to other cancer types, including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and diseases like SARS-CoV-2 infection, where he applied spatial approaches to uncover molecular mechanisms driving disease progression and immune response. This multidisciplinary focus not only deepened Dr Vo's understanding of complex disease processes but also fueled his passion for developing advanced methodologies to tackle these challenges. Collaborating with diverse teams and addressing complex technical hurdles, such as optimizing the analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples, earned recognition from leading industry stakeholders, including 10X Genomics and BGI Australia.
As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working as part of the Cancer Signalling Research Group (CSRG), led by Professor Matthew Dun, based at the University of Newcastle, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Dr Vo now applies his expertise to the study of Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG), a devastating and fatal pediatric brain cancer where palliative radiotherapy is the only treatment available. By leveraging advanced spatial multi-omics technologies, Dr Vo investigates tumor-microenvironment interactions and their implications for therapeutic responses. This research is critically significant due to the urgent need for innovative treatments in this field. Dr Vo remains committed to translating these findings into clinical applications that address the unmet needs of patients with highly aggressive brain cancers, contributing to the development of personalized therapies that offer meaningful improvements in patient outcomes and their families.
Qualifications
- DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, University of Queensland
- Master of Biotechnology Studies, Flinders University
Keywords
- Children brain cancer
- Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)
- Diffuse midline glioma (DMG)
- Machine learning
- Medulloblastoma
- Single-cell omics
- Spatial omics
Languages
- English (Fluent)
- Vietnamese (Mother)
Fields of Research
| Code | Description | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 310509 | Genomics | 20 |
| 340406 | Molecular medicine | 35 |
| 321199 | Oncology and carcinogenesis not elsewhere classified | 30 |
| 461199 | Machine learning not elsewhere classified | 15 |
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
| Title | Organisation / Department |
|---|---|
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow | University of Newcastle School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy Australia |
Academic appointment
| Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
|---|---|---|
| 17/5/2024 - 16/5/2025 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy Australia |
| 15/2/2023 - 15/2/2024 | Senior Research Assistant | Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland Australia |
Awards
Award
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2023 |
Poster Presentation Award, Children's Brain Cancer Conference 2023, Brisbane QLD The Cure Starts Now Foundation |
| 2021 |
Best Oral Presentation, Oz Single Cell 2021, Sydney NSW Oz Single Cell |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Journal article (10 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |
Vo T, Prakrithi P, Jones K, Yoon S, Lam PY, Kao YC, Ma N, Tan SX, Jin X, Zhou C, Crawford J, Walters S, Gupta I, Soyer PH, Khosrotehrani K, Stark MS, Nguyen Q, 'Assessing spatial sequencing and imaging approaches to capture the molecular and pathological heterogeneity of archived cancer tissues', Journal of Pathology, 265, 274-288 (2025) [C1]
|
||||
| 2025 |
Kordowski A, Mulay O, Tan X, Vo T, Baumgartner U, Maybury MK, Hassall T, Harris L, Nguyen Q, Day BW, 'Spatial analysis of a complete DIPG-infiltrated brainstem reveals novel ligand-receptor mediators of tumour-to-TME crosstalk', Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 13 (2025)
|
||||
| 2024 |
Dang TVT, Gillinder KR, Nguyen Q, Mulay O, Vo T, Mehdi AM, Zhou C, Brooks AJ, Leggatt GR, Hume DA, Frazer IH, Chandra J, 'Squamous cell carcinoma is associated with reduced IL34 expression, alterations in the Langerhans cell antigen-processing-presentation machinery and poor patient survival', Clinical and Translational Immunology, 13 (2024) [C1]
|
||||
| Show 7 more journal articles | |||||
Preprint (3 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |
Kim P, Kumar V, Garner N, Jayasingh O, Roman G, Walters S, Vo T, Nguyen Q, Bowles J, Woodruff T, Inder W, Hunt J, Heyde I, Oster H, Rawashdeh O, 'A systemic clock brake: Period1 stabilizes the circadian network under environmental stress' (2025)
|
||||
| 2024 |
Causer A, Lu T, Fitzgerald C, Newman A, Vu H, Tan X, Vo T, Cui C, Narayana VK, Whittle JR, Best SA, Freytag S, Nguyen Q, 'SpaMTP: Integrative Statistical Analysis and Visualisation of Spatial Metabolomics and Transcriptomics data' (2024)
|
||||
| 2024 |
Prakrithi P, Vo T, Vu H, Xiong Z, Nguyen L, Newman A, Whitehall V, Gonzalez Cruz JL, Gupta I, Nguyen Q, 'Unraveling lncRNA Diversity at a Single Cell Resolution and in a Spatial Context across Different Cancer Types' (2024)
|
Grants and Funding
Summary
| Number of grants | 6 |
|---|---|
| Total funding | $4,919,281 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20256 grants / $4,919,281
Sequential & Temporal Therapeutic Agility for the Treatment of Diffuse Midline Glioma$2,000,000
Funding body: NHMRC (National Health & Medical Research Council)
| Funding body | NHMRC (National Health & Medical Research Council) |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Doctor Ryan Duchatel, Doctor Tuan Vo, Doctor Evie Jackson, Dr Fatima Valdes Mora, Prof Dieter Heiland, Prof Nada Jabado, Doctor Sebastian Waszak, Dr Sabine Mueller, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Dr Nicolas Vitanza, Mr Robert Salomon, Dr Laura de la Fuente, Dr Yolanda Sanguino, Miss Olive Loughnan, Santosh Valvi |
| Scheme | MRFF - Paediatric Brain Cancer Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2027 |
| GNo | G2400646 |
| Type Of Funding | C1300 - Aust Competitive - Medical Research Future Fund |
| Category | 1300 |
| UON | Y |
Unlocking Drug Penetration and Metabolomics: Pioneering Real-Time Drug Assessment$919,526
Funding body: ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation
| Funding body | ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Doctor Tuan Vo, A/Prof Arutha Kulasinghe, Dr Carl Koschmann, Doctor Sabine Mueller, AProf Arutha Kulasinghe |
| Scheme | Game Changer Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2027 |
| GNo | G2401412 |
| Type Of Funding | C3600 - International Philanthropy |
| Category | 3600 |
| UON | Y |
Sequential & Temporal Therapeutic Agility for the Treatment of Diffuse Midline Glioma$874,878
Funding body: RUN DIPG
| Funding body | RUN DIPG |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Doctor Ryan Duchatel, Professor Henrik Heiland, Professor Nada Jabado, Doctor Evie Jackson, Doctor Sabine Mueller, Doctor Laura Rodriguez de la Fuente, Robert Salomon, Yolanda Sanguino, Dr Fatima Valdes Mora, Santosh Valvi, Dr Nicolas Vitanza, Doctor Tuan Vo, Doctor Sebastian Waszak |
| Scheme | Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2027 |
| GNo | G2500252 |
| Type Of Funding | C3300 – Aust Philanthropy |
| Category | 3300 |
| UON | Y |
Sequential & Temporal Therapeutic Agility for the Treatment of Diffuse Midline Glioma$874,878
Funding body: Little Legs Foundation
| Funding body | Little Legs Foundation |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Doctor Ryan Duchatel, Professor Henrik Heiland, Professor Nada Jabado, Doctor Evie Jackson, Doctor Sabine Mueller, Doctor Laura Rodriguez de la Fuente, Robert Salomon, Dr Fatima Valdes Mora, Dr Nicolas Vitanza, Doctor Tuan Vo, Doctor Sebastian Waszak |
| Scheme | Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2027 |
| GNo | G2500253 |
| Type Of Funding | C3200 – Aust Not-for Profit |
| Category | 3200 |
| UON | Y |
Sequential & Temporal Therapeutic Agility for the Treatment of Diffuse Midline Glioma$199,999
Funding body: Mark Hughes Foundation
| Funding body | Mark Hughes Foundation |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Doctor Ryan Duchatel, Professor Henrik Heiland, Professor Nada Jabado, Doctor Evie Jackson, Doctor Sabine Mueller, Doctor Laura Rodriguez de la Fuente, Robert Salomon, Yolanda Sanguino, Dr Fatima Valdes Mora, Santosh Valvi, Dr Nicolas Vitanza, Doctor Tuan Vo, Doctor Sebastian Waszak |
| Scheme | Research Funding |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2027 |
| GNo | G2500254 |
| Type Of Funding | Scheme excluded from IGS |
| Category | EXCL |
| UON | Y |
Real time analysis of paediatric brain cancer therapies – optimisation of spatial multiomics for rapid assessment of drug effect$50,000
Funding body: Trustees of the Late RT Hall
| Funding body | Trustees of the Late RT Hall |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Matt Dun, Doctor Tuan Vo |
| Scheme | Research Fund |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2025 |
| Funding Finish | 2025 |
| GNo | G2401687 |
| Type Of Funding | C3300 – Aust Philanthropy |
| Category | 3300 |
| UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
| Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | PhD | Optimising Treatment Strategies for Diffuse Midline Glioma utilising Multi-omic Characterisation of DMG Models | PhD (Medical Biochemistry), College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
| 2024 | PhD | Integrated DMG Multi-omics Subtyping System | PhD (Medical Genetics), College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
| 2023 | PhD | Targeting the extracellular matrix of paediatric brain tumours to promote response to systemic and immune-based therapies. | PhD (Medical Biochemistry), College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
Dr Tuan Vo
Position
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Cancer Signalling Research Group
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy
College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing
Contact Details
| tuan.vo@newcastle.edu.au | |
| Phone | 0240550270 |
| Link |
Office
| Room | LS334 |
|---|---|
| Building | Life Science |
| Location | Callaghan Campus University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |
