Truong San
Phan

Dr. Truong San Phan is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Systems Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Prof. Ido Amit.

San’s research focuses on the regulatory network of barrier tissue environments, such as the skin, in inflammatory diseases.

Epithelial barriers represent the first contact organs to the outer environment and are frequently exposed to multifactorial stressors inducing infection, injury, and inflammation, which may lead to chronic inflammatory diseases. Using single-cell genomic technologies and epigenetic approaches, San aims to uncover tissue-imprinted tolerance and inflammation memory mechanisms in inflammatory diseases. Understanding these principles will help our understanding of how chronicity of inflammatory diseases and their dynamic progressions are regulated and how inflammation is epigenetically encoded over time. San hopes that his research will facilitate the development of new combined therapies to break the vicious cycle of inflammation and heal pathogenic tissue states.

San was born and raised in Berlin and obtained a BSc and MSc in biological sciences from the University of Konstanz, where he went on to pursue his PhD in biochemical pharmacology under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Brunner. His central PhD project focused on elucidating the role of skin-derived glucocorticoids in local skin homeostasis and in prevalent inflammatory skin diseases, highlighting their important immunosuppressive function. Besides science and lecturing, San enjoys being in nature, taking part in social activities and outdoor challenges, and combining all of these in the Alps.