Nguyen Duc Thanh, an affiliate professor on the University of Connecticut, was amongst 36 new members elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), the academy introduced final week. Established by the state legislature in 1976, CASE advises authorities and business on science and know-how coverage.
The academy cited Thanh’s pioneering work on self-boosting microneedle vaccines and biodegradable piezoelectric supplies, saying his improvements carry substantial potential for real-world affect and have attracted greater than $10 million in federal authorities and grant funding.
Thanh holds greater than 20 patents spanning two analysis areas that might reshape how drugs is delivered and the way the physique heals.
His microneedle analysis facilities on a fabrication technique he co-invented known as SEAL (StampEd Assembly of polymer Layers), which produces time-programmed microparticles embedded in pores and skin patches. A single, painless patch can launch a number of doses of a vaccine over time, eliminating the necessity for follow-up injections. The know-how has been utilized to Covid-19 vaccine patches, high-dose antibody patches, and different therapeutics. It additionally addresses one in every of world immunization’s greatest logistical challenges by stabilizing vaccines instantly on the patch, eradicating the necessity for chilly chain storage.
His second main analysis observe includes turning FDA-approved polymers and pure amino acids into biodegradable “smart materials” that generate therapeutic electrical indicators from mechanical stress. These supplies can perform as sensors and ultrasound transducers contained in the physique, then dissolve fully when their job is completed, eliminating the necessity for surgical elimination. The work has sensible purposes in orthopedic trauma care and wound therapy, opening the door to a brand new era of non permanent implants that monitor and assist regenerate broken tissue utilizing the physique’s personal power.
Thanh grew up in Da Nang, the place he attended Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted. He graduated from the Talented Engineers Program in physics at Hanoi University of Science and Technology in 2007, then obtained a fellowship from the Vietnam Education Foundation to pursue a doctorate at Princeton University.
After finishing his dissertation in 2013, he did postdoctoral analysis at MIT below Robert Langer, some of the cited engineers in historical past, earlier than becoming a member of the University of Connecticut school in 2016.
His work has drawn recognition properly past Connecticut. In 2017, he obtained the NIH Trailblazer Award for Young and Early Stage Investigators. The following yr, he was named one in every of 18 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineers worldwide by SME, a number one manufacturing business physique. In 2019, MIT Technology Review named him one in every of its 10 Innovators Under 35 within the Asia Pacific area, and he was chosen as one in every of Vietnam’s 10 Outstanding Young Faces.
He is now a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and has mentored greater than 30 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, together with greater than 10 from Vietnam.
Beyond academia, Thanh co-founded two startups to convey his lab analysis to sufferers. PiezoBioMembrane, Inc. is commercializing biodegradable piezoelectric therapies, whereas SingleTimeMicroneedles, Inc. is growing a single-administration microneedle platform for medical use.