Duc-Huy Nguyen, PhD

Research Description: 

Dr. Nguyen’s laboratory focuses on engineering vascular systems, including both blood and lymphatic vessels, and developing vascularized 3D organotypic tissue models. He aims to uncover the biomolecular and biophysical interactions between vascular networks and resident cells within human tissues under physiological and pathological conditions.

Currently, he uses the liver as our primary model system due to its central role in human physiology and its remarkable regenerative capacity. Liver diseases represent a rapidly growing burden on global healthcare systems. In particular, metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) affects an estimated 38% of the global population. Although MASLD is strongly associated with obesity and diabetes, many patients and certain ethnic populations exhibit a heightened risk of developing fatty liver disease due to specific genetic variants.

His research program leverages stem cell–derived models generated from these patient populations to investigate how genetic variants contribute to the onset and progression of MASLD.

Selected References:

Lu, T. M., Houghton, S., Magdelin, T., Duran, J.G.B., Minotti, P.A., Snead, A., Sproul, A., Nguyen, D.H., Xiang, J., Fine, H.A., Rosenwaks, Z., Studer, L., Rafii, S., Agalliu, D., Redmond, D., Lis, R. (2021) “Pluripotent stem cell-derived epithelium misidentified as brain microvascular endothelium requires ETS factors to acquire vascular fate”. PNAS. 118(8): e2016950118.

Han, Y., Duan, X., Yang, L., Nilsson-Payant, B.E., Wang, P., Duan, F., Tang, X., Yaron, T.M., Zhang, T., Uhl, S., Bram, Y., Richardson, C., Zhu, J., Zhao, Z., Redmond, D., Houghton, S., Nguyen, D.H., Xu, D., Wang, X., Jessurun, J., Borczuk, A., Huang, Y., Johnson, J.L., Liu, Y., Xiang, J., Wang, H., Cantley, L.C., tenOever, B.R., Ho, D.D., Pan, F.C., Evans, T., Chen, H.J., Schwartz, R.E., Chen, S.. (2021) “Identification of SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors using lung and colonic organoids”. Nature. 589: 270-275.

Yang, L., Han, Y., Nilsson-Payant, B.E., Gupta, V., Wang, P., Duan, X., Tang, X., Zhu, J., Zhao, Z., Jaffre, F., Zhang, T., Kim, T.W., Harschnitz, O., Redmond, D., Houghton, S., Liu, C., Naji, A., Ciceri, G., Guttikonda, S., Bram, Y., Nguyen, D.H., Cioffi, M., Chandar, V., Hoagland, D.A., Huang, Y., Xiang, J., Wang, Hui., Lyden, D., Borczuk, A., Chen, H.J., Studer, L., Pan, F.C., Ho, D.D., tenOever, B.R., Evans, T., Schwartz, R.E., Chen. S. (2020) “A human pluripotent stem cell-based platform to study SARS-CoV-2 tropism and model virus infection in human cells and organoids”. Cell Stem Cell. 27(1): 125-136.