Vietnamese researcher makes biological gel to heal wounds without sutures

Nguyen Thi Hiep, 38, head of the biomedical engineering department at the International University, Vietnam National University, has been conducting her research since 2013 and has successfully tested the gel on pigs.

Hiep said when she and her team tested the product on pigs it prevented wounds from being infected and then quickly healed them without the need for sutures. There is no need to remove the gel once applied on a wound, and it accelerates the regeneration of damaged tissues, she said. Even people with no knowledge of first aid can apply the gel when someone is hurt before taking the victim to hospital, making the product  particularly useful for people in remote areas far from medical facilities, Hiep said.

One advantage is that the materials needed to make the gel such as the shells of shrimp and crab are readily available at little cost, she explained.

For her invention, Hiep was among four people to receive  the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science International Rising Talent award in March of last year. In July she was one of two Vietnamese named in the list of 100 most outstanding Asian researchers of 2019 by Singapore’s Asian Scientist magazine.