MEDCHEM-2026

Hien M. Nguyen was born in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Prof. Nguyen came to the US in 1989 and first settled with his family in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated with honors from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts where he majored in chemistry and conducted research with Professor Marc d'Alarcao. Hien left Boston and moved to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and he subsequently joined the group of the late David Y. Gin. His Ph.D. thesis focused on developing new carbohydrate methodologies for efficient assembly of complex oligosaccharides. As an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Barry Trost at Stanford University, Prof. Nguyen pursued training in the area of transition-metal catalysis. Prof. Nguyen began his independent career in 2006 and was promoted with tenure at the University of Iowa. In 2018, he relocated to Wayne State University as the Carl Johnson/Pfizer endowed chair and professor of chemistry. The overarching goal of Prof. Nguyen's research program is to identify novel targets that can be utilized for vaccine adjuvant cancer immunotherapy as well as for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), metastatic breast cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The molecules we discover are identified through diverse approaches, including the synthesis and isolation of natural saponin adjuvants, the derivatization of readily available aminoglycosides, and the synthesis of diverse oligosaccharide compounds, all supported by computational insights. Throughout the process, we often develop novel methods for the assembly of oligosaccharides, glycopeptides, and pharmaceuticals containing fluorine and amine functionalities, in addition to conducting biological assays, which often need to be developed. These efforts substantially expand the application of chemistry in the discovery of new therapies aimed at improving human health.