Hong T.

Tran - 1
Hong T. Tran
+1(214)734-4324 | httran@umich.edu | www.linkedin.com/in/hongtranhtt
EDUCATI ONAL BACKGROUND

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Ph.D., Chemical Biology
Thesis title: Investigating the biosynthesis of malbrancheamide: decrypting the mystery to
bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane fungal al kaloid synthetic biology
Awards: Rackham Pre-candidate Research Grant (2011), Rackham Candidate Research Grant
(2012), Rackham Travel Grant (2012) totaling approximately $5,200
Member of: Women in Science and Engineeri ng, Active Career Explorati on i n Li fe Sciences

2010-Fall 2014
(expected)
Emory Uni versi ty, Atlanta, GA
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, minor in English

2006-2010

Plano East Senior High School , Plano, TX

2004-2006
PROFESSI ONAL AND RESEARCH EXPERI ENCE

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Department of Chemical Bi ology
Doctoral Student
Investigated the malbrancheamide gene cluster using bioi nformatic techniques
Developed an approach to the biochemical characterizati on of the previously underexplored
fungal al kal oid bi osynthetic pathways
Managed col laborati ve efforts between 4 laboratories resulti ng in 2 fi rst-author manuscripts:
performed bi ochemistry experi ments and coordinated goals with synthetic chemists and
structural biologists
Participated in a successful grant renewal from the Nati onal Insti tute of Heal th total ing
$422,000 and a patent for intellectual property
Travel ed abroad to So Carlos, Brazi l to train in new research techniques and strengthen
international coll aborati ve efforts
Trained and set research goal s for 1 juni or graduate student and 3 undergraduate students;
edited 2 completed honors theses

2010 - Present
Emory Uni versi ty, Atlanta, GA
Department of Chemistry
Laboratory Assistant
Processed sampl es for the el ectron microscopy core

2008 - 2010

University of Texas Southwestern, Dal las, TX
Department of Endocri nol ogy and Metabolism
Quantitative and Physical Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Explored mutations of human cytochrome P450 17A1 for the elucidati on of steroi d
metabolism
Investigated the bi ochemistry of successful ly mutated P450s

2009

Oxford Col lege of Emory Uni versity, Oxford, GA
Department of Bi ology
Teacher Assistant
Prepared materials for and assisted i n teachi ng students in genetics lab

2008
Oxford Col lege of Emory Uni versity, Oxford, GA
Department of Chemistry
Laboratory Experience Development Assistant
Spearheaded approaches to generating biodiesel from waste cooking oil and developed a
project to teach the class
Initiated col laborati ve efforts with the cafeteria staff and l ocal transportation systems to
provide biodiesel made from waste cooking oil
Mentored juni or undergraduate students i n organic chemistry lab



2007 - 2008
Hong T. Tran - 2
PUBLI CATI ONS







Tran HT, Tripathi A, Newmister SA, Li S, Wi ll iams RM, Sherman DH. Semipinacol Rearrangement by Fungal FAD-
Dependent Monooxygenases Leads to Indol e Al kaloid Diversi fication and Discovery of Natural Product Notoamide
U. (Manuscript in preparation)
Tran HT, Somoza A, Will iams RM, Sherman DH. Mal B, an FAD-dependent halogenase from Malbranchea
aurantiaca. (Manuscript in preparation)
Peng HM, Li u J, Forsberg SE, Tran HT, Anderson SM, Auchus RJ. Catal ytical ly Relevant Electrostatic Interactions
of Cytochrome P450c17 and Cytochrome b5. (Manuscript submitted)
Li S, Anand K, Tran H, Yu F, Finefield JM, Sunderhaus JD, McAfoos TJ, Tsukamoto S, Wil liams RM, Sherman DH.
Comparative Analysis of the biosynthetic systems for fungal bicycl o[2.2.2]diazaoctane fungal alkaloids: the
(+)/(-)-notoamide, paraherquamide and malbrancheamide pathways. Medchemcomm. 2012 Aug;3(8):987-996.

PRESENTATI ONS
Tran H, Li S, Finefi eld JM, Sunderhaus JD, Wil liams RM, Sherman DH. Diversification and Discovery of New
Notoamide Compounds Using FAD-dependent Monooxygenases NotI and NotI. Chemical Biology Interface
Symposium Poster Session, April 2013.
Tran H, Li S, Anand K, Wil liams RM, Sherman DH. Biosynthesis of bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane fungal alkaloids:
Malbrancheamide, paraherquamide, and (+)/(-)-notoamide. Life Sciences Institute poster session, November
2012.
Tran H, Li S, Anand K, Wil liams RM, Sherman DH. Biosynthesis of bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane fungal alkaloids:
Malbrancheamide, paraherquamide, and (+)/(-)-notoamide. American Chemical Soci ety: General Poster Session,
August 2012.
Tran H, Papari-Zareei M, Mizrachi D, Auchus RJ. CYP17A1 Mutati ons to Study Cytochrome b5 Acti vation Have
High 17,20-Lyase Activity. UT Southwestern Summer Undergraduate Research Fell owship Symposium, August
2009.

PROFESSI ONAL ACTI VI TI ES
American Chemical Soci ety Member
American Medical Wri ters Associati on Member

SKI LLS AND I NTERESTS

Foreign languages: conversati onal in Spanish, conversati onal in spoken Vietnamese, and competent in spoken
Portuguese
Writing: bl ogger for Rackham graduate school, writer of ficti on and poetry
Snowboarding: first real season in 2013-2014 and looki ng forward to many more

COMPUTER SKI LLS
Internet, HTML, CSS
Microsoft Word, Excel , Powerpoint
Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, Il l ustrator
PubMed, GenBank, and various scientific databases

RELEVANT COURSEWORK
Chemical bi ology
Bioorganic pri ncipl es of medici nal chemistry
Anti microbial and cancer pharmacology
Programming l ab in bioi nformatics
Enzyme mechanism and kineti cs
Teachi ng in sciences
Human genetics



Hong T. Tran - 3
LABORATORY SKI LLS AND TECHNI QUES
Biohazard l evel 2 steri le technique
Molecular cloning
Protein expression and puri fication (using E. coli , S. cerevisi ae, A. oryzae)
Fast protei n liquid chromatography (FPLC)
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS)
Mass spectrometry (MS, MS-MS)
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR, primarily 1H)
Gene disrupti on via homologous recombination
Genome assembly from next generation sequenci ng (NGS) data
Genome mini ng
Bioinformatic ORF prediction
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST)
Clustal W alignment