Hailing from Ottawa, and now based in Montreal, Dan Nguyen is a Master’s student at McGill University. His research focuses on how to improve the lives of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. “I did my Bachelor’s at McGill in kinesiology, and doing an honors thesis in a lab focused on exercise physiology,” explains Nguyen. “So this ended up being a population I was pretty attached to, and I was very interested in continuing in that realm. I liked the idea of working in clinical research, so I reached out to my supervisor, Dr. Bryan Ross, and I’m now doing a master’s in experimental medicine.”

Nguyen’s current project focuses on how patients’ mitochondrial function can improve through exercise and urolithin, a natural health supplement. “Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) involves patients experiencing chronic breathlessness, so they have trouble walking for extended periods of time, or going up the stairs, and in more severe cases, taking a shower or getting changed,” explains Nguyen. “My focus is on non-pharmacological forms of treatment. Patients do a pulmonary rehab program, which is an exercise and education program, to learn how to recognize their symptoms, and how they can manage breathlessness on their own: and what gives them the most improvement is exercise.”

As he considers a career in clinical research, CANTRAIN’s innovative training platform will provide Mr. Nguyen with the resources to build his own studies in future. Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen looks forward to presenting preliminary results of his current study at the 2025 Clinical Trials Training Summit in Vancouver. “I’ll have some of the preliminary data of what patients’ improvement actually looks like in terms of exercise tests, and questionnaires to assess their symptoms, burden and quality of life.”

Dan Nguyen is a Master’s student in the Department of Medicine, McGill University. The title of his study is: “Urolithin A supplementation during pulmonary rehabilitation participation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized pilot and feasibility study.”