About me

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in the lab of Prof. Nako Nakatsuka, where I am leading projects focused on the selection and engineering of structure-switching aptamers for advanced biosensing applications.

I initially trained as a pharmacist at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh city (Viet Nam), which enabled me to develop a strong foundation in drug quality, pharmacology, and patient-oriented healthcare challenges. This background shaped my early interest in how drugs are monitored and optimized in real clinical settings, particularly in the context of pharmacokinetic variability between individuals.

I then completed a Master’s degree in Health Engineering at Université Grenoble Alpes (France), specializing in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and Validation Methods in the Department of Molecular Pharmacochemistry. During my master’s internship, I worked on the development of an aptamer-based platform for microorganism detection. This experience sparked my interest in aptamers and played a pivotal role in shaping my research direction.

Building on my background in pharmacy and my growing interest in aptamers, I aimed to bridge fundamental molecular recognition with real-world clinical needs. I was especially motivated by the opportunity to develop tools which could enable personalized drug dosing by integrating pharmacological insights with emerging biosensing technologies. To this end, I pursued a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), under the supervision of Prof. Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme, providing me with strong expertise across the full pipeline from aptamer selection to functional sensor development. 

During my doctoral training, I combined experimental techniques with computational approaches, including biophysics and molecular docking, to rationally re-engineer aptamers and optimize sensor performances. Furthermore, my research focused on developing differential sensing strategy which leverages aptamer cross-reactivity to improve the discrimination of closely related analytes. I designed and validated biosensors for a range of biomedical applications, including anesthesia monitoring, chemotherapy drug tracking, and salivary diagnostics. Overall, my PhD work bridged the gap between fundamental aptamer selection and practical biosensing applications, providing a strong foundation for next-generation diagnostic technologies. More details about my research, as well as links to published papers can be found on my Google Scholar and you can view my most recent CV here.