Quyen T. Nguyen is an American surgeon-scientist and Professor in the Department of Surgery at

UC San Diego School of Medicine The University of California San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego. It was the third medical school in the University of California system, after those established at UCSF and UCLA, ...

and associate director of Education and Training at

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National ...

. She is known for her work pioneering fluorescence guided surgery and co-holds several patents with

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Roger Y. Tsien Roger Yonchien Tsien (pronounced , "'' CHEN''"'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

, PhD pertaining to their invention of peptides, imaging systems and methods to support fluorescence-guided

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

resection and fluorescent labeling of

nerves A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons) in the peripheral nervous system. A nerve transmits electrical impulses. It is the basic unit of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the e ...

on the surgical bed.

Education

Nguyen received a bachelor's degree in Psychobiology from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, and an MD/PhD in Medicine and

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

from

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with or ...

in St. Louis, Missouri in the lab of

Jeff W. Lichtman Jeff W. Lichtman (born 1951) is an American neuroscientist. He is the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. He is best known for his pionee ...

. While in Lichtman's lab, Nguyen developed an

in-vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and pl ...

fluorescence time-lapse imaging system to visualize motor nerve regeneration. She completed her General Surgery internship at

Barnes-Jewish Hospital Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of ...

and a residency in

Otolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

and

Head and neck surgery Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

Career and awards

Nguyen is board-certified in Head and Neck Surgery and Neurotology/Skull Base Surgery. She serves as Director of the Facial Nerve Clinic at UC San Diego, which provides evaluation and surgical treatment for patients with varying facial nerve dysfunctions. In her clinical practice she also treats and operates on patients with diseases of the ear and skull base. She is Professor of Surgery in the

, and serves as associate director of Education and Training at

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National ...

where her focus is on providing equitable access to quality cancer education and training programs across all academic and faculty levels. Nguyen and her research team have received a number of grants and awards including support from the

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

and a

Burroughs Wellcome GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the tent ...

Award in 2009 which have helped to support her research into fluorescence guided surgery, hailed as a breakthrough in numerous news and scientific publications. In 2011, Nguyen presented a talk at a

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff operates from Stamfor ...

conference titled, "Color-Coded Surgery" that has been viewed over 1.2 million times on

Ted.com TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

. In 2014, Nguyen received the

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White ...

(

PECASE The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White ...

) from

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

for her pioneering work in fluorescence guided surgery. In 2017, Nguyen founded Alume Biosciences, a biotechnology startup with the goal of translating nerve agents developed in the lab to aid physicians in visualizing nerves in the operating room.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Quyen T. American surgeons 21st-century American women scientists Living people American technology chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) Women biotechnologists 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians Women medical researchers American medical researchers University of Southern California alumni Washington University School of Medicine alumni University of California, San Diego faculty Women surgeons