1. Full name: Nguyen Viet Duc                                                   2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: 24/06/1984                                                        4. Place of birth: Ha Noi.

5. Admission decision number: Decision No. 4982/QĐ-ĐHKHTN dated on 27 November, 2013 by Rector of VNU University of Science.

6. Changes in academic process: Decision No. 1033/QĐ-ĐHKHTN date on 25/4/2017 and Decision No. 597/QĐ-ĐHKHTN date on 06/3/2018, signed by the Rector of VNU University of Science.

7. Official thesis title: Application of theoretical and computational approaches to investigate electrostatic interactions in biological systems containing DNA molecules.

8. Major: Theoretical and mathematical physics                           9. Code: 9440130.01

10. Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen The Toan

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Vu Nhan

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis

- Explain qualitatively the phenomena of charge inversion and effective attraction between same charge macro molecules by using Poisson – Boltzmann mean-field equation and  the assumption that counterions condense on the surface of macromolecules to form a strongly correlation liquid.

- Construct and perform Grand Canonical Monte - Carlo Simulation for solutions of salt mixtures.

- Investigate the effective attraction between DNA molecules, the osmotic pressure, the distribution of various species in DNA hexagonal lattice. The results are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with experimental study of DNA packaging virus.

- Show that deprotonated state of cysteine amino acid is essential for Zinc finger proteins that bonding to DNA.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

- This method can be used to develope computational module for biomolecules simulation and drug discovery in a multiscale computational approaches.

13. Further research directions, if any:

- Integrate the Monte Carlo simulation method into multiscale simulation softwares for molecular biomedical systems.

- Investigate the effect of dielectric contrast; role of co-ion sizes; improve the Grand Canonical Monte - Carlo simulation of complex shapes of ions; extend to simulation of protein systems.

14. Thesis-related publications:

[1].       Viet Duc Nguyen, Toan T. Nguyen and Paolo Carloni (2017), “DNA like-charge attraction and overcharging by divalent counterions in the presence of divalent co-ions”, Journal of Biological Physics, 43(2), pp. 185–195.

[2].       Nguyen V Duc, Toan T Nguyen (2017), “Grand–Canonical Monte–Carlo simulation of DNA condensation in equilibrium with a salt mixture containing 2:2 salt”, Journal of Physics: Conf. Series, 865, pp. 012010.

[3].       Duc Viet Nguyen, Toan T. Nguyen (2019), “Size effect in Grand-canonical Monte-Carlo simulation of solutions of electrolyte”, VNU Journal of Science: Mathematics and Physics, 35(2), pp. 13–21.

[4].       Nguyen Viet Duc, Ly Hai Nguyen, Hien T. T. Lai, Toan T. Nguyen (2019) “Computational study of the effect of protonation states of PSA protein zinc fingers on its DNA binding”, Journal of Physics: Conf. Series, 1274, pp. 012002.

[5].       Nguyen Vu Nhan, Nguyen Viet Duc, Toan T. Nguyen (2019) “The phenomena of charge inversion and effective attraction between the spherical macromolecules in electrolyte solvent”, Scientific journal of Hanoi Metropolitan University 35, pp. 42–53.