Thanh Thanh L. Nguyen, PhD

I am a functional genomicist interested in elucidating genetic drivers of disease and translating findings into new diagnostics and targeted treatments. My PhD thesis integrated transcriptomic, genomic and epigenomic approaches to characterize environment-dependent genetic risk variants across autoimmunity, metabolism, mood disorders, osteoporosis and cancer (Nucleic Acids Research 2022, Molecular Psychiatry 2021). Currently as a co-mentored computational and experimental biologist, I am leveraging state-of-the-art massively parallel reporter assays, CRISPR screens and human stem cell technologies to (1) explore the genetic architecture driving functional variation of all human trait-associated genetic variants in the UK Biobank (Nature, under review), and (2) functionally characterize all brain non-coding somatic mosaic variants discovered to date, resolving their causal roles in schizophrenia (Science 2024) and autism spectrum disorder. My postdoc is funded by the NIMH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) T32 and F32.

Since joining Yale I have mentored eight trainees from diverse nationalities and backgrounds, and supervised a masters thesis and an undergraduate senior thesis (Boell Prize Award 2025).