Dr. Freddy T. Nguyen, MD, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Transfusion Medicine Fellow in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
He was most recently a Resident Physician in the Pathology Residency Program at Mount Sinai Hospital from 2019-2022, the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2017-2020, the In Vivo Microscopy Fellow at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in 2020 at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Research Advisor: Guillermo Tearney, MD, PhD) and a post-doctoral research fellow from 2016-2018 in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Research Advisor: Michael S. Strano, PhD). He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Research Advisor: Stephen A. Boppart, MD, PhD) and his M.D. from the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also did research in the George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory over the years (Research Advisors: Michael S. Feld, PhD, Ramachandra R. Dasari, PhD, Peter So, PhD). He received his B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Mathematics from Rice University (Research Advisors: Robert F. Curl, PhD, Philip R. Brooks, PhD).
MD-PHD TRAINING: During his PhD, he received a predoctoral fellowship from the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Department of Defense – Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. His PhD thesis research focused on the development and validation of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for the intraoperative assessment of tumor margins and lymph nodes during breast cancer surgeries. He also worked on the development of targeted multi-modal protein microspheres as a delivery vehicle for contrast agents to bridge the localization of tumor cells across macro scale and micron scale imaging modalities such as MRI, Fluorescence, OCT, and Magnetomotive-OCT.
POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING: During his postdoctoral research, he received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to develop novel nanoscale sensors for the molecular recognition of chemotherapeutic drugs and cell death markers to assess drug delivery and cancer therapy efficacy. Through several technical advances from biomedical optics, to fiber optics, to hydrogel form factors, to single-walled carbon nanotube based sensors, he has contributed to the development of a combined optical imaging nanosensor platform for in vivo and in vitro molecular recognition of small molecules.
His prior work focused on spectroscopic techniques such as intrinsic fluorescence, Raman, diffuse reflectance, and light scattering for the detection and diagnosis of cancer as well as evaluate tumor responses to chemotherapeutics. His current research interests lie in the development and translation of optical imaging techniques, novel material development, and nanoscale sensors particularly in their applications to the field of oncology, laboratory medicine or clinical pathology, and transfusion medicine.
PHYSICIAN-SCIENTIST: Dr. Nguyen has been a strong advocate for trainees throughout his career. He was the founder, President, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA), an organization that was built to support and advocate for physician-scientist trainees. In 2006, he was recognized by the Excellence in Medicine Award from the American Medical Association Foundation for his leadership. In 2014, APSA jointly with the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians recognized Dr. Nguyen with the APSA Directors’ Award for his “indefatigable dedication to physician-scientist trainees” and in celebration of 10th anniversary of the founding of APSA”. Since 2022, he has been leading an active research group at MIT studying the physician-scientist workforce and pipeline in collaboration with Dr. Dania Daye, MD, PhD and Dr. Alex Adami, MD, PhD.
He was a member of the Physician Scientist Initiative Committee led by the Association of Professors of Medicine and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Clinical and Translational Science Network led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) & Science Careers.
SERVICE: He also represented his peers on the Associate Member Council of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and on the Council of Student Members for the American College of Physicians (ACP).
He is highly involved with his alma mater, Rice University, having served as Founding President of the Rice Alumni in Medicine (RAM) group, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Rice Alumni, as co-chair of his Class Reunion, and as a co-president of the Boston Rice Alumni Regional Group.
Dr. Nguyen serves on the Committee on Assessment of Biohazards & Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight for MIT and previously served on the Institutional Review Board for UIUC. Dr. Nguyen also serves on the Nanosensors Section Editorial Board for Sensors and on the Editorial Board of Plasmatology.
INNOVATION: He has been an emerging leader in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems as a former co-director of MIT Hacking Medicine, co-founder and co-director of the MIT COVID-19 Challenge, and co-founder and co-director MIT Hacking Racism Challenge. Since 2018, he has been co-leading active research groups at MIT on healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship in collaboration with Dr. Khalil Ramadi, Dr. Bryan Ranger, Dr. Martha Gray, and Zen Chu.
