Huong Ha

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Mechanism underlying changes in synaptic and network activities of autism (ASD).

Research Projects

• Searching for peripheral blood marker of cognitive impairment in HIV infected patients: the potential of TAT mRNA level (Scholarly Concentration Project)

  Neurocognitive impairment, neuro-AIDS, is still one of the most prevalence co-morbidity of AIDS despite the development of many different antiviral therapies. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that viral DNA is still exist in many blood cells and produce toxic protein/ initiate system inflammation that is harmful to the nervous system. Previous studies have demonstrated the consistent prevalence of TAT protein in postmortem brain of people with neurocognitive impairment as well as proved its harmful effect to the nervous system. Yet the reasons how TAT could present in the brain and how it creates negative effects for the nervous system are still unclear. The first step and also the most direct way to answer these queries is analyzing TAT protein level in the brain tissues or in the cerebral fluid of patients with various level of neural impairment, which is hard to approach due to ethical reason and to the instability of TAT protein. Therefore, we aims to discover the potential of TAT-mRNA concentration in the peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMC), the main reservoir of provirus, as a new marker to differentiate the level of neurocognitive impairment in HIV-infected patients.Currently, we are developing real-time PCR assays to quantify the concentration of spliced TAT mRNA in PBMC. At present, we had successfully detected TAT-mRNA in cDNA from clinical samples by conventional PCR and develop a complete real-time PCR assay using plasmid containing TAT sequence from patient blood samples. Next step will be assessing the assay’s sensitivity and specificity and reproducibility. Later on, we might draw a correlation between TAT-mRNA level and neurocognitive impairment by applying both the real-time PCR assay and assessing the neurocognition of patients with HIV disease. Data will be updated later.

  Time Period

  December 1, 2011 - 5/1/2012

  Location

  Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

  Organization

  Oxford University Clinical Research Unit

Lab Affiliations

• Craig Garner, Garner Lab (2/1/2013)

Work Experience

• Teaching Assistant - Stanford Neuroscience Intensive Boot Camp, Stanford University (6/1/2013 - 9/27/2013)

  Intensive course for both the students and the TAs. Works include designing project ideas, compiling syllabus, working on experimental and teaching materials, giving talks and leading discussion, instructing students how to do experiments, organizing the whole molecular and cellular section (class, students, other instructors) of the course.

  Location

  Stanford, California

• Research Assistant - HIV, HIV-coinfection and Related Disorders Lab, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (12/1/2011 - 5/1/2012)

  Location

  Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

• Research Assistant - HPV and Cervical Cancer Research Group, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Science, Vietnam National University (5/2010 - 6/2011)

  Location

  Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

• Teaching Assistant - Molecular Biology Lab, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Science, Vietnam National University (3/2011 - 11/2011)

  Location

  Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam