“Women can also do important scientific work”

Realize childhood dreams

The author knows the name of Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong - Head of the Department of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, International University, Ho Chi Minh City National University at the 2022 Outstanding Female Scientist Award Ceremony on November 25, 2022 at the headquarters of the Vietnam Academy of Science & Technology, within the framework of the program "L'Oréal - UNESCO Awards for Women in Science (For Women in Science)". Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong is 1 of 3 Vietnamese female scientists with potential research projects for health and benefits for the community to receive the Outstanding Female Scientist Award in 2022.

Next, in 2023, Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong was named in four awards of the year including: Golden Globe, National Outstanding Teacher, Women of the Future Southeast Asia 2023 and Outstanding Young Citizen of Ho Chi Minh City. And most recently, on March 23, 2024, Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong was honored as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Vietnamese Faces of 2023.

Although she has a predestined relationship with the award, according to Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong, these are achievements accumulated over a long period of research and teaching, not achieved overnight, and "this achievement bears the mark of many teachers, colleagues, and students in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, not just me," the female Doctor shared.

Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong was born in 1989 in a family where both parents are teachers, her mother teaches Biology and her father teaches Chemistry. From a young age, Huong was exposed to natural science knowledge and soon showed an interest in this subject. Taking the high school entrance exam, Thanh Huong was admitted to the Biology specialized class at the Gifted High School, Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Choosing a career for the future, Thanh Huong decided to study neuroscience. The reason for this decision came from a family member suffering from depression. In the process of taking her relatives to hospitals for examination and treatment, Thanh Huong saw that the conditions for mental health care in Vietnam were still limited. Even in large hospitals, there were still no tools for accurate diagnosis and treatment.

In 2007, Thanh Huong was admitted to the Biotechnology Department of the University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City National University. Determined to pursue her dream, during her university studies, Thanh Huong began to research neuroscience training programs abroad, because she realized that at that time, this major was only taught in the country to train doctors, while she wanted to pursue a career in scientific research. In 2011, after graduating as valedictorian of her university, Thanh Huong returned to work at the Oxford University Clinical Research Center (OUCRU) in Vietnam, with the desire to accumulate work experience in an international environment.

Continuing to pursue her dream, this year, Thanh Huong applied for a scholarship from the Vietnam Education Foundation to pursue research in neuroscience at Stanford University, USA. The results exceeded expectations, Thanh Huong won another scholarship, becoming a graduate student in neuroscience at this university with a focus on autism research. In 2018, after completing her doctoral thesis, Thanh Huong returned to Vietnam to work at the International University, Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Motivation behind research

Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong shared that, right from when she went to study abroad, she always wanted to change the way society understands mental health. When sick, in the patient's brain, there are changes in molecules and chemicals that cause the patient to change the way they think, behave and act. This is a disease, not something that the patient can self-regulate, or is due to some spiritual factor. That is why, when meeting a depressed person, we cannot tell them to be less depressed or sad; or when meeting a patient with anxiety disorder, tell them to be less anxious... Just like when meeting an Alzheimer's patient, we cannot tell them to try to remember, because this is a disease.

When she first returned to Vietnam, Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong spent most of her time meeting with doctors and going to hospitals to learn and develop ideas for mental health research. From initial surveys, Dr. Huong identified two major mental health problems that could be solved based on the knowledge she had learned, including: stress-related diseases and Alzheimer's (a brain disease that causes memory loss and thinking ability). Dr. Huong realized that Alzheimer's is one of the diseases that causes the highest mortality in the elderly. In the context of an aging population in Vietnam, research on this disease has become urgent.

In 2018, starting to work on improving brain function, Dr. Huong established the Brain Health Lab research group with colleagues, graduate students and students. The group successfully developed Brain Analytics software - analyzing MRI images of patients' brains and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease automatically and quickly, trained and tested on the ADNI database (USA) with an accuracy of about 96%. In 2022, she and her colleagues researched a project to create a kit to detect Alzheimer's disease on the spot. With this kit, doctors at district-level medical centers can use it to diagnose Alzheimer's disease instead of having to use modern imaging equipment. In addition, based on the p-tau 217 protein content, doctors can predict the development of the disease in the coming years.

In 2022, with the project "Research and development of an artificial intelligence (AI) and big data application system to support doctors in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease based on brain MRI images", she and her colleagues also won the third prize at the 16th National Technical Innovation Competition. This can be considered the first product applying AI to diagnose and monitor Alzheimer's disease in Vietnam with a high accuracy of up to 96%. In the same year, she was one of three female scientists honored as "Outstanding Female Scientist of 2022" by the L'Oréal - Unesco for Women in Science Award with potential research projects for health and benefits for the community...

It is known that, up to now, Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong has about 30 research projects on Alzheimer's disease in particular and mental health in general. The research results in the past as well as the direction that Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong will continue to carry out in the coming time will contribute to filling the gap in research in this field in Vietnam today. As for herself, Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong always believes that women can also do important scientific projects, have influence in society, have creativity and in Vietnam today there are many opportunities to pursue science, although research work, writing scientific articles, applying for funding or finding partners are all very hard. But a great motivation for scientists is the maturity of the next generation of students who know how to pursue their dreams and the good progress of patients when they benefit from the results of research projects. At times like these, all the hardships seem to disappear, ready to continue on the path you have chosen.

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/nu-gioi-cung-co-the-lam-duoc-nhung-cong-trinh-khoa-hoc-quan-trong-post507486.html