Hung, lecturer at the HCM City Food Industry University, was one of the young faces at the second Vietnam Global Young Intellectual Forum in November 2019. He also attended the forum a year before, when it was organized for the first time.

Dr Tran Van Hung

He was one of more than 100 outstanding scientists and experts in science and technology working in Vietnam and overseas who joined the 2018 Vietnam Innovation Network – VIN100 Program organized by the Ministries of Science and Technology, Education and Training, and Vingroup.

In 2017, at 30, Hung obtained a doctorate in food technology at Hiroshima University. He studied the application of food in treatment of bowel cancer and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).

“In our research, we focus on researching the effects of food fiber on bowel cancer and diseases. Of many fibre types, we found 3 types, Guargum (400 KDa), Partially Hydrolyzed guargum (Hydrolyzed Guargum-18KDa) and Exopolysacharide (EPS), a type of polysaccharide with many good properties,” he said.

“After experiments on mice and intestinal cancer cells, we discovered the mechanism and the ability to curb inflammation, intestinal cancer and CKD,” he said.

The research was published in leading journals such as Journal of Nutrition, Nutrition Research, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, Journal of Functional Foods, and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

As for research on EPS, the Japanese company Nitto Pharmaceutical Industries, has applied the results of the research by adding EPS to drugs and producing some kinds of supplemental food products.

After returning to Vietnam in 2017, Hung and his co-workers continued this research in Vietnam. The young PhD also pursued research on processing biologically active food products and creating commercial food products.

In 2019, with the support of Truc Anh Production and Trade Company, Hung and co-workers made herbal drinks from cordyceps roberti.

With research on the production of this drink, Hung was invited to take on the role of keynote speaker at the international workshop on UN issues held in Japan.

Asked about his decision to return to Vietnam, Hung admitted that the decision was not applauded by his family.

“However, I still decided to return because I want to do something for my country,” he said.