PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh (Institute of Marine Biochemistry) selected as one of Asia’s top 100 scientists in 2020
To be recognized as Asian Scientist of Asian Scientist magazine, scientists must have received national or international awards in the previous year for their research. In additonal, scientists also need to have excellent, important results in the field of intensive research.
At the time of the Asian Scientist magazine published 100 typical Asian scientists, PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh is still busy with scientific research. The area of scientific research that PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh pursues is the chemistry of natural products, pharmaceutical chemistry.
In her research work, PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh and her colleagues used chromatographic methods to extract, isolate and identify bioactive chemical compounds from medicinal sources, and use fingerprint chromatography do determine the content of active ingredients as a basis for assessing the quality of medicinal materials used. The use of chromatography methods combined with modern equipment and technology has helped the research process be carried out quickly, accurately and with high reliability, contributing to improving the ability of using natural-source pharmaceuticals safely and effectively.
Currently, the accurate determination of organic compounds in pharmaceuticals is still facing many difficulties such as: the content of active substances in the sample is small, the degree of doping between substances with very similar chemical characteristics is very high, while the change of substances in the extraction process easily occurs. The challenge for scientists is to develop an optimal extraction process; find new, active compounds; determine the content of the compound in the sample; assess the safety level of the compounds, thereby orienting the development of pharmaceuticals for each disease.
In this research direction, with modern reserarch methods, at the age of 40, PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh is the author, co-author of 39 international articles in ISI-list journals, 8 pieces of research in national journals, and is the owner of one patent. She has also chaired 2 projects at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 2 projects at the grassroots level were checked and signed excellent.
According to the scientists’ evaluation, the reseach results are only valuable contributions to the standardization of the method in identifying and assessing, finding new sources of medicinal materials for Vietnam and the world in a safe and sustainable way. In order to put these outstanding works into practical applications, attention, investment, and coordination of agencies, organizations and enterprises are needed in training strong and in-depth reseach groups to perfect the system, both theoretical and emprical, on a trial, industrial and business scale.
PhD. Tran Thi Hong Hanh is one of three female scientists who received the L’Oreal Prize in 2019, and is one of three outstanding scientists representing Vietnam among 100 typical Asian scientists in 2020.
In normal life, as a scientist who needs to devote a lot time to research, she always receives sharing and companionship from her family.
Translated by Phuong Ha
Link to Vietnamese version