Nguyen is board-certified in Head and Neck Surgery and Neurotology/Skull Base Surgery. She serves as Director of the Facial Nerve Clinic at UC San Diego, which provides evaluation and surgical treatment for patients with varying facial nerve dysfunctions. In her clinical practice she also treats and operates on patients with diseases of the ear and skull base. She is Professor of Surgery in the UC San Diego School of Medicine, and serves as associate director of Education and Training at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center where her focus is on providing equitable access to quality cancer education and training programs across all academic and faculty levels.[6]
Nguyen and her research team have received a number of grants and awards including support from the NIH[7] and a Burroughs Wellcome Award in 2009 which have helped to support her research into fluorescence guided surgery, hailed as a breakthrough in numerous news and scientific publications.[8][9][10][11][12]
In 2011, Nguyen presented a talk at a TEDMED conference titled, "Color-Coded Surgery" that has been viewed over 1.2 million times on Ted.com.[13] In 2014, Nguyen received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Barack Obama for her pioneering work in fluorescence guided surgery.[14] In 2017, Nguyen founded Alume Biosciences,[15] a biotechnology startup with the goal of translating nerve agents developed in the lab to aid physicians in visualizing nerves in the operating room.[16]
^US granted 8685372, Roger Y. Tsien; Quyen T. Nguyen & Michael Whitney, "Peptides and aptamers for targeting of neuron or nerves", published April 1, 2014
^US granted 20140276008A1, Paul Steinbach; Quyen T. Nguyen & Roger Y. Tsien, "Imaging system and method for fluorescence guided surgery", published March 19, 2019
