Thien Nguyen, a post-graduate student completing a Masters of Diagnostic Genomics, is working on QEI’s research exploring safer, lower-cost precision therapy for thyroid eye disease.
Thien is a qualified optometrist and has a particular interest in genomics. He’s keen to explore research as a career but it’s been a difficult transition. Fortunately, QEI’s Dr Alexandra Manta could offer him advice, experience and academic connections.
“I had an extensive network in optometry,” Thien says, “and I just abandoned it and moved into another industry. It’s been hard.”
“I contacted QEI because I wanted information about what kind of organisations are important, what kind of people I should talk to, and what it’s like to be a scientist.
“But it just happened that Dr. Manta was looking for someone to help her at that time,” Thien explains.
Dr Manta says Thien’s background as an optometrist is a great advantage to his research work at QEI. “Thien understands the real impact thyroid eye disease has on people,” Dr Manta says, noting women outnumber men five to one in suffering from this disfiguring and vision-impairing disease.
QEI’s research project on thyroid eye disease is a collaboration between Professor Damien Harkin and Associate Professor Daniel Wallace from QUT and Doctors Alexandra Manta and Shuko Suzuki from QEI, bringing together expertise from histology, genomics, cell and molecular biology to explore new targeted treatment pathways.
All research projects at the Queensland Eye Institute are funded by donations made through the Queensland Eye Institute Foundation.