NIKKEI ASIA PRIZE 2018: VINMEC PRESENTS THE RESEARCHES ON TREATING TERMINAL ILLNESSES BY STEM CELL THERAPY IN JAPAN
On 15th June in Tokyo, Professor Nguyen Thanh Liem and his colleagues at Vinmec Research Institute of Stem Cell and Gene Technology presented their valuable reports on treating terminal illnesses by stem cell therapy, which receives great attention from Japanese scientific community.
Right after Nikkei Asia Prize 2018 ceremony, Teikyo University (Japan) organized a symposium with topic: “Stem Cells – Aging and Clinical Applications” dedicated to Prof. Nguyen Thanh Liem (Vinmec Research Institute of Stem Cell and Gene Technology). Thereby, the Japaneses and international scientists who are interested in this field can meet, exchange, as well as update the newest information.
In this seminar, Prof. Nguyen Thanh Liem had a lecture about applying stem cell transplant in pediatric life-threatening illness treatment. His lecture has updated breakthrough results in Vinmec for the past years in research and application of stem cell for treating terminal diseases, such as autism, cerebral palsy..., which brings positive changes to numerous patients in Vietnam.
Dr. Hoang Minh Duc on Nikkei Asia Prize 2018 ceremony
Doctor Hoang Minh Duc (Stem Cells and Immune Cells Department – Vinmec Research Institute of Stem Cell and Gene Technology) has also been noticed by his highlighted research on ‘’Establishing cardiovascular disease research model by stem cell in combination with genetic modification techniques’’.
Dr. Hoang Minh Duc’s report is centered on the combination of pluripotent stem cell and genetic engineering, in order to establish a studying model of cardiovascular diseases – a brand new issue in global medicine. He is the co-author of this research and excellently completed it as his PhD thesis in Nottingham University (UK) in 2017.
Vinmec’s scientific research reports are highly regarded and appreciated by the experts by its successful outcome in stem cell research – a new field in Vietnam and even Japan. Following Prof. Nguyen Thanh Liem’s Nikkei Asia Prize 2018 award and this seminar, many universities in Japan and the world are interested in the opportunity to cooperate with Vinmec in stem cell and gene technology.
Dr. Hoang Minh Duc, a young scientist in Vinmec, had in-depth studies about stem cell published in the Journal of Cell and Developmental Biology of US National Center for Biotechnology Information on March 2018. Dr. Hoang Minh Duc had been studying and working at Wolfson Center for Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering and Modelling at Nottingham university (UK) for more than 8 years. Simultaneously, he was a main researcher of British Cardiovascular Society. During his doctoral research and postdoctoral career in UK, Dr. Hoang Minh Duc has focused on successful development of 3 technologies: (1) human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) from human lymphoblastoid cell line, (2) new application method of CRISPR/Cas genome editing techniques in induced pluripotent stem cells, (3) human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) applied in regenerative medicine.
Prof. Liem and Dr. Hoang Minh Duc with others scientists at the seminar
Sharing with his international colleagues at the seminar, Prof. Liem emphasized: “with young potential scientists as Dr. Hoang Minh Duc, Vinmec will build up a team of young talented, enthusiastic and passionate scientists in stem cell research and application. Regarding, Vinmec will welcome the young excellent scientists trained in US, Germany and France ready to devote themselves with the desire of bringing optimal stem cell technologies to the patients”.
Currently, Vinmec has been researching and applying stem cell for the treatments of cerebral palsy, autism, cirrhosis, congenital biliary atresia, osteoarthritis, spine trauma, COPD, multiple myeloma... In the near future, Vinmec will accelerate the application in mesenchymal stem cell therapy for diabetes, endocrine disorder, and sex hormone decline in middle-aged people; using umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells in bronchopulmonary dysplasia and cranial trauma...