Dang Nguyen

M.D./Ph.D. Student

About Me

I grew up in the Upstate of South Carolina, and I went just a little bit north for my baccalaureate at Duke University. Going in, I really loved the idea of research, but I had no idea of what to study. My first experience looked at brain immunometabolism in Alzheimer’s disease, which got me excited about the complex intersection of neuroscience and immunology. But after several run-ins with immune issues of my own, I grew an interest in understanding how the immune system can contribute to the development of diseases throughout the lifespan. As such, I joined the very lovely lab of Dr. Staci Bilbo, where we scrutinized every environmental factor under the sun for their immune-mediated involvement in neurodevelopment. And my microglia must have enjoyed every minute of it because I am now committing to a whole career as a physician-scientist, through which I hope to characterize and therapeutically target the immunological underpinnings of chronic diseases.

Hobbies/Interests

Baking, Coffee Roasting, Ice Cream Making, Gym. If research is not currently interesting, I am probably 10 Wikipedia pages too deep into some irrelevant obscurity.

Research Topic

Neuroimmunology, Health Disparities, Environmental Determinants of Health.

Why I chose MD/PhD

Just about every chronic medical condition converges on the immune system along its pathology, even in areas conventionally thought to be non-immune-related like neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the great diversity of risk factors that interact with the immune system makes it particularly difficult to disentangle the driving mechanisms of lifelong diseases. To approach this challenge, I find the rigorous training of an MD/PhD in hypothesis-driven science alongside clinical skills an essential part of my mission to provide both exhaustive and innovative patient care.

Why I chose MD/PhD at UT Health San Antonio

Central to my goal as a physician-scientist is going after the environmental factors underlying health disparities. Disadvantaged communities face more inequities and negative exposures in their day-to-day that are associated with poorer health outcomes. However, addressing this requires an intimate understanding of the unique and intersectional experiences of patients from these populations, so that future advancements in therapeutics are precise to their dynamic needs. UT Health San Antonio serves some of the populations heaviest hit by health disparities, located in the heart of the Texas Hispanic majority-minority region and military city. It is an honor to serve these communities to my fullest.

Education

Neurobiology, BS, Duke University

Publications

Devlin, B. A., Nguyen, D. M., Grullon, G., Clark, M. J., Ceasrine, A. M., Deja, M., Shah, A., Ati, S., Finn, A., Ribeiro, D., Schaefer, A., & Bilbo, S. D. (2024). Neuron derived cytokine interleukin-34 controls developmental microglia function. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.10.589920
Rawls, A., Nguyen, D., Dziabis, J., Anbarci, D., Clark, M., Dzirasa, K., & Bilbo, S. D. (2024). Microglial MyD88-dependent pathways are regulated in a sex-specific manner in the context of HMGB1-induced anxiety. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.22.590482
Smith, C. J., Rendina, D. N., Kingsbury, M. A., Malacon, K. E., Nguyen, D. M., Tran, J. J., Devlin, B. A., Raju, R. M., Clark, M. J., Burgett, L., Zhang, J. H., Cetinbas, M., Sadreyev, R. I., Chen, K., Iyer, M. S., & Bilbo, S. D. (2023). Microbial modulation via cross-fostering prevents the effects of pervasive environmental stressors on microglia and social behavior, but not the dopamine system. Molecular Psychiatry, 28(6), 2549–2562. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02108-w