Dr Trung Ngo is the 2024 New Investigator Clinical Fellow, based at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and Health Services Laboratories (HSL). His Fellowship project is one of the first in the world to use spatial transcriptomics to study essential thrombocythaemia, and the findings will help shape future care in Australia and New Zealand.
Essential thrombocythaemia (ET) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN), which causes fatigue and predisposes patients to thrombotic disease and transformation to myelofibrosis or acute leukaemia. Up to 10% of patients with ET are classified as “triple-negative” due to the absence of a canonical JAK2 V617F, CALR or MPL mutation, which makes diagnosis difficult.
This Fellowship enabled Dr Ngo to advance his research training in the application of bone marrow trephine immunohistochemistry and spatial transcriptomics to myeloproliferative neoplasms with the specific aim of addressing diagnostic challenges in triple-negative essential thrombocythaemia. This will help inform future diagnostic guidelines and strengthened MPN care across Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Ngo was a first author on a review of novel MPN therapies, published 26 June 2026 in the British Journal of Haematology, titled ‘Integrating novel therapeutic strategies in myeloproliferative neoplasms: Driving disease- directed progress’; DOI: 10.1111/bjh.70672.
Spatial transcriptomics is a powerful new tool that helps clinicians and scientists understand the bone marrow in much greater detail. It is improving how blood disorders are diagnosed and will support safer, more accurate treatment decisions in the future.
This laboratory technique allows researchers to see which genes are switched on inside individual cells, and exactly where those cells sit within the tissue. Instead of analysing gene expression in bulk (where all cells are mixed together), spatial transcriptomics preserves the architecture of the bone marrow, showing how cells behave in their natural neighbourhoods. It’s like moving from a blurry aerial photo to a detailed street map.
HSANZ extends sincere thanks to Novartis and Janssen for their generous support of the 2024 New Investigator Clinical Fellowship program.
