Andrew D. Nguyen

Career Profile

I am a data-driven biologist with six years of relevant experience in biostatistics in addition to five years of PhD training. As a statistical analyst, I worked at a non-profit in the field of regulatory toxicology, and I worked for two years as a research scientist in an academic lab applying statistical techniques to understand seasonal timing in agricultural pests. Currently, I am a biostatistician for the Orlando Health Cancer Institute, where I support research in clinical quality and in clinical trials. The culmination of my experiences has led me to be skilled in constructing narratives from data to address real world problems.

My go-to tool is R (RStudio), where I have the most experience in data wrangling (cleaning, parsing, transforming), data analysis, simulations, and data visualization.

Career Highlights

Served as a statistical lead on projects for clinical researchers and government agencies
Flexible and quick learner as exemplified in diverse professional experiences over the past 12 years
Excellent scientific communicator as exemplified in 11 peer-reviewed publications and scientific presentations

Experience

2024-Present

Biostatistician, Orlando Health Cancer Institute, Clinical Quality Department

Serving as the lead biostatistician for clinical trials and performing critical activities such as conducting sample size calculations, drafting statistical analysis plans, and developing clinical databases (REDCap)

Supporting Clinical Quality research activities such as evaluating how different policies impact patient outcomes (survival, hospital visits, and length of stay) using causal inference techniques

2019-2024

Regulatory Scientific Strategist, PSCI, Regulatory Toxicology Department

Developed database and analyzed chronic toxicity studies with quantitative and qualitative approaches in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to inform risk assessments to pesticide exposure

Designed experiments, analyzed results, and submitted proposals to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in support of regulatory use of in vitro methods for medical device evaluations

Consulted food and medical device companies to support safety assessments in regulatory submissions to US FDA

Communicated scientific knowledge and findings in plain English to technical and non-technical stakeholders

2017 - 2019

Postdoctoral Associate, University of Florida

Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Hahn

Managed and led an National Science Foundation funded project on the seasonal adaptation of agricultural insect pests

Investigated behavioral rhythms with time series analyses and fitting statistical models

Communicated findings in technical journals and at scientific conferences

Hosted workshops for conducting reproducible science

2012-2017

Dissertation research; University of Vermont

Fitted functional response curves of transcriptomic and proteomic data to understand environmental damage to whole organisms

Used machine-learning techniques to predict species presence or absence over heterogeneous climatic landscapes

Applied quantitative genetics approaches such as fitting mixed-effects models to understand gene by environmental interactions

Worked collaboratively with research groups spanning multiple universities

Communicated research findings in peer-reviewed publications, intradepartmental meetings, and national conferences

2014

Research Associate, Dr. Lori Stevens lab; University of Vermont

Determined infection frequency of Trypanosome parasites in Kissing bugs that cause Chagas disease

Fitted statistical models for infection rates

2010-2011

Technician; Reaction Biology Corp

High-throughput screening of potentially therapeutic small compounds

2009-2010

Technician, Antibody Core Department; Morphotek Inc.

Developed therapeutic antibodies against Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Experimentally carried out bulk antibody and antigen production

2007-2008

Co-op intern, Reproductive Toxicology; GlaxoSmithKline

Studied red blood cell differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells

Experimentally analyzed rabbit blood hormone markers

2006-2007

Co-op intern, Antibody Core Department; Morphotek Inc.

Developed neutralizing antibodies against Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B (SEB)

Education

2012-2017

PhD, Biology; University of Vermont (Burlington), Department of Biology

Thesis title: Evolutionary innovations in ants to thermally stressful environments

Advisors: Sara Helms Cahan, Nicholas J. Gotelli
Committee: Brent L. Lockwood, Jill Preston

2004-2009

BSc, Biology; Drexel University (Philadelphia)

Publications

Undergraduate researchers in italics

11. Petersen, E. J., Nguyen, AD, et al. (2021) Characteristics to consider when selecting a positive control material for an in vitro assay, ALTEX - Alternatives to animal experimentation. doi: 10.14573/altex.2102111. Both authors contributed equally; Paper link

10. Nguyen AD et al. 2019. Trade-Offs in Cold Resistance at the Northern Range Edge of the Common Woodland Ant Aphaenogaster picea (Formicidae). The American Naturalist. 194:6 Paper and Data

9. Powell THQ, Nguyen AD, et al. 2020. A rapidly evolved shift in life‐history timing during ecological speciation is driven by the transition between developmental phases. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 33:10. Paper link

8. Nguyen AD, DeNovellis K, Resendez S, Pustilnik JD, Gotelli NJ, Parker JD, Cahan SH. 2017. Effects of desiccation and starvation on thermal tolerance and the heat-shock response in forest ants. J Comp Physiol B:1–10. Paper

7. Nguyen AD, Gotelli NJ, Cahan SH. 2016. The evolution of heat shock protein sequences, cis-regulatory elements, and expression profiles in the eusocial Hymenoptera. BMC Evolutionary Biology 16:15. Paper and Data

6. Helms Cahan S, Nguyen AD, Zhou Y. Population genomics supports multiple hybrid zone origins of socially hybridogenetic lineages of Pogonomyrmex harvester ants. Evolution (N Y). 2022;76(5):1016-1032. doi:10.1111/evo.14481

5. Stevens L, Lima-Cordón RA, Helms Cahan S, Nguyen AD, et al. Catch me if you can: Under-detection of Trypanosoma cruzi (Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatida) infections in Triatoma dimidiata s.l. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) from Central America. Acta Trop. 2021;224:106130. doi:10.1016/J.ACTATROPICA.2021.106130

4. Helms Cahan S, Nguyen AD, Stanton-Geddes J, Penick CA, Hernáiz-Hernández Y, DeMarco BB, Gotelli NJ. 2017. Modulation of the heat shock response is associated with acclimation to novel temperatures but not adaptation to climatic variation in the ants Aphaenogaster picea and A. rudis. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 204:113–120. Paper and Data

3. Stanton-Geddes J, Nguyen A, Chick L, Vincent J, Vangala M, Dunn RR, Ellison AM, Sanders NJ, Gotelli NJ, Cahan SH. 2016. Thermal reactionomes reveal divergent responses to thermal extremes in warm and cool-climate ant species. BMC Genomics 17:171. Paper and Data

2. Cicconardi F,..,Nguyen AD,..,Steiner FM,Schlick-Steiner, BC. 2020. Genomic signature of shifts in selection in a sub-alpine ant and its physiological adaptations. Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa076 Paper

1. Lau MK, Ellison AM, Nguyen A, Penick C, DeMarco B, Gotelli NJ, Sanders NJ, Dunn RR, Helms Cahan S. 2019. Draft Aphaenogaster genomes expand our view of ant genome size variation across climate gradients. PeerJ 7:e6447 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6447

Skills

Computing:

R – Data wrangling, visualization, and analysis within the tidyverse
Unix – General command line, shell bash scripting, and remote computing
Github – Reproducible science through version control and online notebooks/documentation
Phylogenetics - Maximum likelihood (RAxML) and Bayesian (MrBayes) methods
Nucleotide and Protein Sequence analysis
Microsoft Office – Data preparation, organization, and word processing
Mendeley/Zotero - organize and curate references in a collaborative fashion

Laboratory:

RNA,DNA, and protein isolation
PCR and qPCR
Gel electrophoresis: polyacrylamide and agarose
Immunochemistry - western blots, ELISA, IHC
Cell culture (primary and established lines)
Flow Cytometry

External Reviewer

Computational Toxicology
Innate Immunity
The Journal of Pathology
Genome Biology and Evolution
Molecular Ecology
Journal of Animal Ecology
Journal of Experimental Biology
Scientific Reports
Conservation Physiology
Journal of Insect Physiology
Insectes Sociaux
Insect Science

Conferences/Workshops Attended

2023: American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT), Silver Spring, MD; Biocompatibility Insights, Annapolis, MD
2022: American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT), Gaithersburg, MD
2020: Practical Methods for In Vitro Toxicology Workshop, Gaithersburg, MD
2019: Integrating Modern Science Approaches, Houston, Texas; Computational TOxicology: Peeking into the clouds while keeping our feet on solid ground, Gaithersburg, MD
2018: Evolution, Montepllier, France
2017: Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, New Orleans, LA; Entomological Society of America, Denver, CO
2016: Evolution, Austin, Texas
2014: Evolution, Raleigh, North Carolina; Molecular Biology and Evolution, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
2013: Northeast Natural History - Ant Ecology session, Springfield, Massachusetts
2012: International Union for the Study of Social Insects - North American Section Meeting (IUSSI-NAS), Greensboro, North Carolina

Organizational Membership

2019-Present: American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT)
2017-2018: Society for Reserach on Biological Rhythms (SRBR); Entomological Society of America (ESA)
2015-2017: American Society of Naturalists (ASN)
2014-2015: Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB)
2012-2013: Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (sMBE); International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI); Ecological Society of America (ESA)

University Service

2018-2019

University Minority Mentor Program (UMMP)

Help first year undergraduate students transition into university life.

2018-2019

Editor, University of Florida Postdoctoral Editors Association (UF-PEA)

Edit written documents for language usage, puctuation, and organization.

Outreach

2015

Helper, Software Carpentry, University of Vermont

Helped participants troubleshoot code (Unix command line, R, Github)

2012

Graduate Mentor, Ant Camp, University of Vermont

Collected ants and described their natural history with high school students