Dr. Giang was an excellent student in biotechnology at Can Tho University. Giang said that he used to love studying medical materials and knew that Korea and China were two countries that were developing strongly in this field. At the same time, Giang also loved the romantic scenery in Korean movies, so he decided to "hunt" for a scholarship to study abroad in this country.

Because of his good grades at Can Tho University, along with meeting the requirements for a foreign language certificate, Giang received a doctoral scholarship at Incheon National University (Korea) worth about 3 billion VND. In August 2018, Giang went to Korea to study.

“At first, I missed home a lot. I came to Korea to study in an English-taught program, and using the local language for daily communication was a huge barrier. Research and study in Korea is completely different from the program in Vietnam, so it took me a long time to adapt,” Giang said.

Dr. Nguyen Cao Thuy Giang

NVCC

Giang said the biggest challenge for women studying BioNanoEngineering (specializing in synthesizing drug delivery materials for cancer treatment) is health issues. There are animal experiments that last for months in the lab, requiring Giang to be in good health to be able to closely monitor. However, because she is a girl, Giang feels that she does quite well in experiments that require meticulousness.

During his studies in Korea, Giang published a total of 14 scientific research projects in major and minor journals in the fields of biomedicine and biomedical materials. Among them, Giang is most interested in the research on drug delivery materials for brain cancer treatment. The research uses exosome materials from endothelial cells to effectively deliver cancer drugs into the brain. Because up to now, most treatment drugs have difficulty penetrating directly into cancer cells due to the selective nature of the meninges.

“My research has shown very promising treatment results on mice. In the future, this research will continue to be developed and tested clinically. I hope that this achievement will contribute to the treatment of brain cancer in the future,” Giang shared.

Dr. Nguyen Cao Thuy Giang hopes to become a professor in the future.

NVCC

Last February, Giang officially became a doctor after successfully defending his thesis on the topic of using biological materials to transport drugs to targeted cancer cells. At the same time, combining the use of ultrasound waves to amplify the treatment effect. "Currently, my research has achieved some effective treatment results on animals. I hope that in the future it will continue to be developed to be able to respond to the treatment of cancer patients," Giang said.

During his studies and research at Incheon National University, Giang has won a number of awards such as: Science and Arts Award at the 2023 American Materials Conference, organized by the American Materials Research Society; Outstanding Vietnamese Student Award in the field of biotechnology in Korea in 2023 presented by the Vietnamese Student Association in Korea...

When she officially became a doctor, Giang had a happy wedding with her husband, Dr. Truong Hoang Quan. Before that, the two had spent more than 6 years together, helping each other in research at Incheon National University.

Giang and her husband, Dr. Truong Hoang Quan, got married in March 2024.

NVCC

“We have accompanied and experienced together the ups and downs of our time studying and researching in Korea. Sometimes the experimental process did not bring the desired results, making me feel very pressured and intend to give up. But luckily, at times like that, he was always there to encourage me and help me overcome those challenges,” Giang shared.

For Giang, getting married does not mean “giving up the game”. The female doctor said she will continue “playing” with her husband in the upcoming research journey. Currently, Giang and Quan are both postdoctoral researchers - assistant professors at the University of Massachusetts (USA). Both aim to become professors.

“Giang is a very skillful and meticulous person in doing experiments. She always supports me in many things. In return, I will support Giang in calculating and synthesizing chemicals. We always compensate for each other's weaknesses and encourage each other to develop together,” Dr. Quan shared.