Titles and Affiliations
Assistant Professor of Engineering
Thayer School of Engineering
American Association for Cancer Research
Research Area
Engineering next-generation antibody-drug conjugates to more precisely target and treat metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
Impact
Breast cancer causes about 43,000 deaths in the US each year and is the leading cause of cancer death among women under 50. Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), one of the most aggressive forms of the disease, has especially limited treatment options, as surgery is often not a viable option and even the most advanced drugs benefit only a fraction of patients. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) offer a promising strategy, specifically killing cancer cells by binding to a receptor on the cell surface and delivering a toxic drug directly to it, but less than 1 percent of an injected ADC dose typically reaches the tumor, limiting effectiveness and increasing side effects elsewhere in the body.
What’s Next
In his AACR/BCRF-supported research, Dr. Nguyen is developing a “plug-and-play” delivery platform built from bottlebrush polymers, brush-shaped molecules that can be adjusted in size, fitted with different tumor-targeting tags, and loaded with multiple drugs at once. He will first test a family of TROP2-targeting polymers to establish clear design rules for tumor targeting, an approach that could extend to other cancer markers and cancer types. He will then load the best-performing carriers with pairs of clinically proven mTNBC drugs to identify the most effective combinations, testing top candidates against the already-approved ADC datopotamab deruxtecan-dlnk (commonly called Dat-Dxd; DATROWAY®). Because the platform’s design is modular, the targeting tag and drug combination can be readily swapped to fit different cancers, with the goal of building smarter, more precisely targeted medicines that improve outcomes while reducing toxicity.
Biography
Hung V.-T. Nguyen, PhD started his independent career in 2024 as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, and an Investigator at the Dartmouth Cancer Center. Research in the Nguyen Group focuses on the development of platform technologies for nanomedicine and drug delivery applications, with an emphasis on cancer therapy. This is achieved by leveraging advancements in polymer chemistry, bioconjugation, and protein engineering. Prior to joining Dartmouth, Nguyen received his Associate’s from Northern Virginia Community College, followed by his Bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Doctorate from MIT.
