I studied at the University of Melbourne, embarking on a PhD in Pharmacology studying oestrogen metabolites and models of breast tumour growth. With an interest in vivo model system, I moved to the University of Edinburgh, UK to explore immune responses and how the lung responds to infections, allergens and injury. I obtained an Asthma UK and Medical Research Fellowship and moved to the University of Manchester to develop and utilise models of allergic airway pathology to better understand immune responses and extracellular matrix remodelling. In 2022 I relocated to the University of Aberdeen with a growing interest in using spatial methods to uncover key immuno-matrix networks that drive lung disease.

Thai Tran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Infectious Disease Translational Research Program at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She leads a dynamic research group investigating how the microenvironment (extracellular matrix including laminin and its adaptor protein, CD151) interacts with cells of the lung and how dysregulation of this interaction contributes to lung pathophysiology. Within this theme, her laboratory has two major areas of research focus: (A) Role of laminin and CD151 in lung disease pathophysiology (including asthma, influenza infection, and lung cancer) through molecular, cellular, and disease model approaches and (B) Identification of novel therapeutic targets of lung diseases. Thai is also the Education Director for the Life Sciences, Vice-President of the Singapore Pharmacological Society, NUS Medicine Faculty Academic Advisory Committee member, and Associate Professorial Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee member. She has won awards in research (NUS Medicine Young Researcher of the Year Award 2019), teaching (NUS Medicine Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, 2016 and 2019), and graduate mentoring (NUS Medicine Graduate Mentor of the Year Award 2018).