Thanh Thi Kim Nguyen - Selected Publications#

Full list available on Google Scholar Profile or at Prof Nguyen TK Thanh’s website.

She is in both the Career Long and the Single Year Impact lists (e.g., a percentile rank of 2% or above) of scientists who have published at least 5 papers: Aug 2021 data-update for “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”. Sep 2022 data-update for “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”. October 2023 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators".

She has solo edited 2 books, filed 3 patents and is editor in chief of 16 books. She has published 168 research papers, book chapters, theme issues and proceedings. Among them 19 papers were featured in cover pages. With total >19743 citations, i10 index = 107, 26 papers with over 100 citations among them 1 attracted 3989 citations.

*: Lead and corresponding author

1. Thanh, N. T. K.*, Green, L. A. W. (2010) Functionalisation of nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Nano Today. 5: 213-230. Highly Cited Paper: 848 citations.

This review paper is paramount important for research community working with nanoparticles as it provides different useful strategies for functionalisation of nanoparticles

2. Thanh, N. T. K*, N. Maclean, S. Mahiddine. (2014) Mechanisms of Nucleation and Growth of Nanoparticles in Solution. Chemical Reviews. 114: 7610-7630. Highly Cited Paper: 2853 citations.

The impact of this review paper is evident by a very high citation, it allows for deep understanding of how to synthesise different nanoparticle systems.

3. Hachani, R., Lowdell, M., Birchall, M., Hervault, A., Merts, D., Begin-Colin, S., Thanh, N. T. K.* Polyol synthesis, functionalisation, and biocompatibility studies of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for potential MRI contrast agents. (2016) Nanoscale. 8, 3278-3287. Highly Cited Paper: 217 citations.

A simple methodology to allow monodispersed, water dispersible nanoparticles to has been adopted widely. Its effective functionalisation to render the nanoparticles to be suitable as MRI contrast agents has attracted great interests, and the assessments of cytotoxicity are useful bench mark for researchers, who wish to develop biocompatible nanoparticles.

4. Hervault, A., Lim, M., Boyer, C., Dunn, A., Mott, D., Maenosono, S. and Thanh, N. T. K.* (2016) Doxorubicin loaded dual pH- and thermo-responsive magnetic nanocarrier for combined magnetic hyperthermia and targeted controlled drug delivery applications. Nanoscale. 8: 12152-12161. Front Cover. Highly Cited Paper: 209 citations.

This paper is not only well accepted in the scientific communities, but also shows an important development for clinical translation of using the synergistic effect of magnetic nanoparticles for hyperthermia cancer treatment in combination with anticancer drug Doxorubicin.

5. Mourdikoudis, S., Pallares, R. M., and Thanh, N. T. K.* (2018) Characterization Techniques for Nanoparticles: Comparison and Complementarity upon Studying Nanoparticle Properties. Nanoscale. 10: 12871-12934. The top of 5% most-read articles published in the second quarter of the year and in the Nanoscale top 5% most-read Q2 web collection. 1415 citations.

This review paper is highly useful for nanoparticle research community as well as industry as assessing the quality of synthesised nanoparticles is important for any applications.

6. LaGrow, A.P., Besenhard, M.O., Hodzic, A., Sergides, A., L. K Bogart, Gavriilidis, A., and Thanh, N. T. K* (2019) Unravelling the Growth Mechanism of the Co-Precipitation of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with the Aid of Synchrotron XRD in Solution. Nanoscale. 11: 6620 - 6628. 140 citations.

This paper is a breakthrough in the field, as it is for the first time since 1981, when the nanosized magnetite nanoparticles were synthesised by R. Massart, (IEEE Trans. Mag. 1981: 17: 1247) we got a handle on its mechanistic formation, based on advanced characterisation in transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy showed a distinct transition from an amorphous ferrihydrite phase to a mixture of magnetite- maghemite (Fe3O4/γ-Fe2O3). Synchrotron X-ray diffraction revealed the initial formation of crystalline iron hydroxide carbonate plates occurring before the Fe3O4/γ-Fe2O3 appeared intermediate phases still being present in the final product. The ferrihydrite particles increase in size over time as the proportion of iron hydroxide carbonate plates are re-dissolved into solution, until the ferrihydrite particles crystallise into Fe3O4/γ-Fe2O3.

7. Sharma S.K., Shrivastava, N., Rossi, F., Tung, L. D., and Thanh, N. T. K.* (2019) Nanoparticle-based magnetic and photo induced hyperthermia for cancer treatment. Nano Today. 100795: 1-27. 196 citations.

There are two modalities that nanoparticles could induce heat to be used to treat cancers based on two separate systems magnetic or mainly plasmonic nanoparticles. The review gives an impactful comparison that allows cross fertilisation between fields and also critical assesses the pro and con of each modality, that would help shorten the clinical translation pathway of development of these nanoparticles.

8. Besenhard, M.O., LaGrow, A.P., Hodzic, A., Kriechbaum, M., Panariello L., G., Bais, Loizou, K., Damilos, S., Thanh, N. T. K* and Gavriilidis, A. (2020) Co-Precipitation Synthesis of Stable Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with NaOH: New Insights and Production via Flow Chemistry. Chemical Engineering Journal. 399: 125740. 94 citations.

9. Besenhard M. O., Panariello, L., Kiefer, C., LaGrow, A. P., Storozhuk, L., Perton F., Begin, S., Damien Mertz, D., Thanh, N. T. K.* and Gavriilidis, A. (2021) Small Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as MRI T1 Contrast Agent: Scalable Inexpensive Water-Based Synthesis Using a Flow Reactor. Nanoscale. 13: 8795-8805. 40 citations.

These results lay the path for the formation of MRI T1 contrast agent in our patent: Besenhard, M. O., Panariello, L., Storozhuk, L., LaGrow, A. P., Gavriilidis, A. and Thanh, T. K. (2021) Nanoparticle Precipitation. Int Pat App WO 2021/240177.

The impact of this work is a paradigm shift in £4B MRI contrast agent industry. As small iron oxide nanoparticles that could replace gadolinium is currently used. Gadolinium is toxic for renal patients and also accumulate in the drinking water, which is currently not possible to purify.

10. Storozhuk, L., Besenhard M. O., Mourdikoudis, S., LaGrow, A. P., Lees, M.R., Tung, L. D., Gavriilidis, A., Thanh, N. T. K* (2021) Stable Iron Oxide Nanoflowers with Exceptional Magnetic Heating Efficiency: Simple and Fast Polyol Synthesis. ACS Applied Materials and Interface. 13: 45870−45880. 32 citations.

This work allows us to develop a simple, fast, robust, reproducible, and scalable method to produce iron oxide nanoflowers for use in magnetic hyperthermia cancer treatment as the nanoflowers have excellent 3 times higher heating rates compared to that of commercially available iron oxide nanoparticles. We filed a paptent “Storozhuk, L., Besenhard, M. O., Gavriilidis, A. and Thanh, T. K. (2022) Multi-core magnetic metal oxide nanoparticles. UK Patent Application No. 2108250.8” as a result of the research.

This work was among 24 short listed out of 120 international applications for 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies Competition in Health Category