News

2025

Our PhD student, Nidhi Sharma, won the first prize in the BME poster competition. Congratulations to Nidhi (March 2025)!

2024

UConn today features Prof. Nguyen and Nguyen lab research program which has been recently awarded simultaneously 4 RO1 grants from NIH (~ $9.1M) and ~$6.6M grant from the Gates Foundation. Grateful to the support of our sponsors (Oct 2024)

Our lab received another RO1/NIH in collaboration with Dr. Gustavo Doncel and the team at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) to support the work in the use of Microneedles for the delivery of anti-HIV antibodies (Sept 2024).

Our lab received another RO1 to support the work in Piezoelectric Biomaterials for Bone Regeneration. Thank to NIH/NIBIB for the great support (July 2024)

Prof. Nguyen joined the editorial board of the journal of Biomaterials (one of the top journals in the field) as the associate editor (April 2024).

Our publication for the piezoelectric filtering nanofiber membrane is among the top 10% papers to be downloaded from Advanced Functional Materials. (https://lnkd.in/d6XJaU6d). Congrats to the lead author, my excellent former PhD student Thinh T. Le, Ph.D. and other co-authors (March 2024).

Our paper entitled “Injectable and biodegradable piezoelectric hydrogel for osteoarthritis treatment” is in the list of top 25 healthcare articles in Nature Communication. Congrats to the first author, our PhD student, Tra Vinikoor and other authors on this excellent work (March 2024).

Prof. Nguyen is elected to the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI) as the senior member, class of 2024 (February 2024)

Our PhD student, Sang Truong, won the first prize for the college of engineering, poster competition in the department of Biomedical Engineering (UConn). Congratulations to Sang (February 2024)

2023

Nguyen lab received new fundings (~$3M) from Gates Foundation and USDA for the research on vaccine microneedles (November 2023)

Our work on the biodegradable glycine transducer for brain cancer treatment was published on Science Advances and featured by several news and media outlets; NSF PhysicsWorld WebMD ScienceDaily UConnToday CTinsider etc. (August 2023)

Our graduate student, Meysam Chorsi, landed a postdoc position at Stanford and won the first prize in the 2023 UConn BME Graduate Research Presentation for the excellent work in “Biodegradable Ultrasound Transducer for Brain Cancer Therapy”. Congratulations to Meysam for these terrific achievements, May 2023.

Nguyen group delivered three talks at and enjoyed the annual meeting of society for biomaterials (SFB), April 2023

Our work on the use of single-administration self-boosting microneedles for long-acting antibody therapy was published and featured as the journal cover of Molecular Pharmaceutics (April, 2023).

Our PhD students, Thinh Le and Ritopa Das, received the Summer Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from The Graduate School. Congratulations on Thinh and Ritopa for the excellent awards (April 2023).

Our PhD students, Thinh Le and Tra Nguyen, received the Student Travel Achievement Recognition (STAR) Awards from the Society For Biomaterials (SFB) for the excellent research on biodegradable piezoelectric nanofibers and hydrogels, respectively. Congratulations to Thinh and Tra (March 2023).

Our lab received another RO1 to develop the biodegradable ultrasound transducer for blood-brain drug delivery and the treatment of brain cancer (Feb 2023)

Prof. Nguyen gave a talk as one of the featured speakers at the CRWAD animal vaccine conference and delivered a research seminar at the department of chemistry, the University of Chicago (Illinois, US, Jan 2023)

2022

Prof. Nguyen receives the 2022 Biomaterials Young Investigator Award from the journal of Biomaterials and will present Nguyen group research in the 2022 European Society of Biomaterials (ESB) annual meeting (August, 2022)

Our graduate student, Tra Nguyen, won the GE fellowship from UConn graduate school. Congratulations to Tra for this terrific award (August, 2022).

VaccineInsights interviewed Prof. Nguyen for the work of the single-time vaccine microneedles, how the idea was developed and the paths forward. A full free article can be read online (July 2022)

Our works on the cartilage PLLA scaffolds and piezoelectric N95 like facemasks are featured by ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) (July 2022)

Nguyen lab received the first RO1 grant from NIH to continue study and develop the piezoelectric scaffold for the treatment of osteoarthritis in large animal models (June 2022).

NIH/NIBIB highlighted our research on the use of piezoelectric cartilage scaffold to treat osteoarthritis (June, 2022).

UConn announces for the promotion of Professor Nguyen to Associate Professor (April 2022).

Our postdoc (Dr. Yang Liu) won the prestigious CAB (Chinese Association for Biomaterials) Trainee Award for the excellent work in piezoelectric cartilage scaffold. Congratulations to Yang for a terrific achievement (March 2022).

Our graduate student (Meysam T. Chorsi, co-advised by Dr. Horea Ilies and Dr. Kazem Kazerounian) won the first prizes for the poster competitions in both the departmental and school of engineering levels. Congratulations to Meysam for this great prize (March 2022).

Check out the highlights (news and interviews) for our biodegradable piezoelectrical masks from YahooNews CT-insider Connecticut News and CTNews12 (Feb 2022)

Our paper on the biodegradable piezoelectric nanofiber filtering membrane is published on the journal of Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations to Thinh le, Eli Curry (former graduate student) and other collaborators for this excellent work (Feb 2022)

Our work on the biodegradable piezoelectric cartilage graft is highlighted by the editor of Nature Reviews Rheumatology. (Jan 2022)

Prof. Nguyen talked about the biodegradable piezoelectric cartilage graft on the CBC national radio of Canada with Bob McDonald. Click on the link to listen to the interview! (Jan 2022)

Our work on the biodegradable piezoelectric cartilage graft is featured on several major media worldwide, including TheTimes DailyMail Medgadget ScienceDaily BBC ScienceFocus UConn Today nationworldnews and many others.

Our work on the development of a stable, moisture-resistant, reusable and N95 like piezoelectric facemask filter with long-term biodegradability to address the issues of permanent plastic waste, instability and moisture susceptibility of current one-time use facemasks was accepted for publication in the journal of Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations to the lead authors (Thinh Le and Eli curry) and other collaborators on this exciting work (Jan 2022).

Our work on the biodegradable piezoelectric cartilage graft is featured on the cover of Science Translational Medicine, Issue 627, volume 14 (January 2022)

2021

Our work on the biodegradable piezoelectric cartilage graft to treat osteoarthritis was accepted for publication in the journal of Science Translational Medicine. Congratulations to the lead author, Dr. Yang Liu, and other others/collaborators on this excellent work (December 2021).

Our graduate student, Khanh Tran, was selected to attend the Inaugural MechE Rising Stars Workshop which will be organized by MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering to introduce early-career women to the world of academia. She is among the thirty-four of the brightest women graduate students, post-docs, and early-career researchers in mechanical engineering who have been chosen to participate in the workshop. Congratulations to Khanh for this terrific news! (September 2021)

Our graduate student, Thinh Le, won the second-tier Baxter Young Investigator award of 2021 for the excellent work on using the biodegradable piezoelectric PLLA nanofibers for medical/human-health applications. Congratulations to Thinh for this great achievement (September 2021).

Our graduate student, Khanh Tran, received the Trainee Award from CRS (Control Release Society) and the Transdermal and Mucosal Delivery (TMD) focus group for her excellent work in the single-administration vaccine Microneedles. Congratulations to Khanh for this terrific award (July 2021)

Prof. Nguyen talked with National Public Radio (NPR) about the work of developing single-administration microneedle patch for global vaccination campaign along with other researchers in the field (May 2021).

Our biodegradable facemask is featured on Hartford Courant, Science Matters “Making a safe biodegradable facemask for COVID-19” (April 2021)

Congratulations to our PhD students, Khanh Tran and Thinh Le, to win the first and second prize, respectively, for the research poster competition of UConn, the school of engineering. They also both won the first prize for the BME and ME department competitions (April 2021).

2020

The Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR) selected to feature our patent, entitled “Biodegradable Piezoelectric Surgical Mask” on UConn Today (Jan, 2021)

Our work on the transdermal microneedle skin patch for single-administration vaccines was featured on Mirage News, Foreign Affairs New Zealand, EurekAlert, ScienMag, MedicalXpress, Science Daily, UConn Today, and the Medical News

Congratulations to Khanh Tran on the paper, entitled “Transdermal microneedles for the programmable burst release of multiple vaccine payloads” which is published on the journal of Nature Biomedical Engineering (Nov 2020)

Our graduate student, Eli Curry, has successfully defensed his PhD thesis, entitled “Piezoelectric Biomaterials for Biodegradable Medical Applications”. Congratulations to Dr. Curry! (Nov 2020)

Our research group received a grant from BARDA (an office of the department of Human Health Service) for a research project which aims to create a single-administered microneedle vaccine patch to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2020).

Our PhD student, Khanh Tran, received the prestigious GE fellowship from UConn graduate school for her excellent research work in microneedle technology. Congratulations to Khanh (July 2020)

Our work on the use of piezoelectric PLLA nanofibers for bone healing was featured on several news outlets and magazines UConn today, Phys.Org, NewsAtlas, Ereukalert, ScienMag, ScienceDaily, Nanowerk, ipsnews, News Break, Science Codex, Altnews, ENGGTalks, Nanowerk,

Congratulations to Ritopa Das on the paper, entitled “Biodegradable Nanofiber Bone-Tissue Scaffold as Remotely-Controlled and Self-Powering Electrical Stimulator” which is published on the journal of Nano Energy (July 2020)

Nguyen lab is now also on twitter — please follow us to be updated with news at https://twitter.com/nguyenuconn (July 2020)

Prof. Nguyen receives the 2020 YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD from the CRS (Control Release Society) Focus Group on Transdermal and Mucosal Delivery (June 2020)

Our PhD student, Thinh Le, won the first prize in the graduate research competition of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Congratulations to Thinh (April 2020)!

Prof. Nguyen receives the ACell YOUNG INVESTIGATOR FACULTY AWARD and will deliver a KEYNOTE speech at the Regenerative Medicine Workshop, which brings together leading experts from across the expansive field of regenerative medicine in March 2020.

Our work on the biodegradable piezoelectric nanofiber-based transducer was featured on NeuroscienceNews TechnologyNetworks LabManager MedicalXpress ScienceBlog Technology.Org NewsBreak (Jan 2020)

2019

Our PNAS paper on piezoelectric PLLA nanofibers for biodegradable wireless sensors and ultrasonic transducers to monitor intra-organ pressures and deliver drugs through the blood-brain barrier, respectively, is featured on UConn Today (December 2019).

Congratulations to Eli Curry and Thinh Le on the paper, entitled “Biodegradable nanofiber-based piezoelectric transducer” which was published on the latest issues of PNAS (December, 2019).

Congratulations to our undergraduate student (Jayla Millender) to be selected for the prestigious University Scholar Program (December 2019)

Prof. Nguyen delivered a plenary talk, entitled “Smart Biodegradable Polymer at Nano-Micro Scales for Medical Application“ at the NanoFlorida International Conference (November, 2019)

Our biodegradable piezoelectric force sensor is one of the works featured on the front matter of PNAS “Inner Workings: Self-powered biomedical devices tap into the body’s movements“ (September 2019)

Our PhD student, Ritopa Das, receives $10,000 fellowship from Thermo Fisher Scientific to use state-of the art microscopes for material characterizations at the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Materials Analysis (CAMMA, UConn). Congratulations Ritopa! (August 2019)

Our paper “Biodegradable Piezoelectric Sensor" receives the second prize for the best paper at the IEEE Body Sensor Network (BSN) conference in Chicago (May 2019)

Prof. Nguyen received the Young Investigator Award in Biosciences and Bioengineering of Applied Sciences (Feb 2019).

2018

Prof. Nguyen received Rising Researcher Award from SPIE (The International Society for Optics and Photonics) for the work in Biodegradable Piezoelectric Force Sensor and will give an invited talk at SPIE 2019 annual conference (Dec 2018).

Prof. Nguyen is selected as one of the ten honorees to receive the MIT top innovators under 35 for Asia-Pacific region (Nov 2018).

Prof. Nguyen delivers an invited seminar on the “Technology: Pioneering the Future of Medicine” at the 229th Annual Meeting of Medical Society of Delaware (Nov 2018)

Congratulations to Thinh Le for passing the qualify exam of Mechanical Engineering (May 2018)

Prof. Nguyen is one of the 18 engineers to receive the long-traditional award from Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) for outstanding young manufacturing engineers (April 2018)

2017

Our undergraduate student, Avi Patel, has been admitted to the prestigious University Scholar Program. Congratulation to Avi (Dec 2017).

Eli Curry's paper, entitled "A biodegradable piezoelectric force sensor" is accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulation to Eli and all other authors (Dec 2017)

SEAL is also featured on UConn Today (Oct 2017)

SEAL has been featured in several media and news (Sept 2017); Sciencedaily BBC news TheIndependence Foxnews YahooNews neuralsculpt Phys.Org MITnews TheGaurdian NewScientist Futurism Biocompare MedicalPlasticNews TheEngineer BostonMagazine Engadget UPI 3ders TheIndianExpress ScienceAlert Pharmatechnologist ScienceMediaCenter 3dprint

SEAL (StampEd Assembly of polymer Layers), a technology developed by Prof. Nguyen during his postdoc at MIT to manufacture 3D microstructures of pure biopolymers, appears on the journal of Science. Congratulations to Prof. Nguyen and also the entire great team at MIT for this fantastic work (September 2017)

Prof. Nguyen receives the prestigious NIH R21 Trailblazer Award for Young Investigators (June 2017)

Prof. Nguyen receives "Teaching Excellence" letter from Provost for his own-developed course of "Biointegrated Materials and Devices at Nano- and Micro-scales" (June 2017)

Prof. Nguyen joined the Institute of Regenerative Engineering (IRS) at UConn Health, School of Medicine (April 2017)

Prof. Nguyen attended the healthcare event which aims to bring engineering solutions to medical problems (March 2017)