Acting Head:	Assoc. Prof. Ngo Viet Quynh Tram, M.D, Ph.D
Vice-Head:	Assoc. Prof. Tran Dinh Binh, M.D, Ph.D
	Dr. Le Thi Bao Chi, M.D, MSc
Contact Information:	Department of Microbiology, 4th Floor, Building C - Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy 06 Ngo Quyen St., Hue City, Vietnam Tel: (+84) 234.3969511
Email:	bm.visinh@huemed-univ.edu.vn

1. INTRODUCTION

The subject of Microbiology at Hue Medical College was taught by German professors and some lecturers invited from other units or from outside . Until 1971, the Department of Microbiology was established after the Dr. Le Ba Nhan, who graduated PhD training in Germany and returned to work at the college. In 1976, the Department of Microbiology was divided into two Departments: 1) The Department of Microbiology was led by PhD. Le Ba Nhan and in charge of teaching Medical Microbiology, including bacteria and viruses; 2) Department of Parasitology by Dr. Nguyen Phuc He is in charge of teaching Parasitology including fungi, protozoa, helminths and medical insects.

The department of Microbiology had trained for many different type of students: six year medical students, Bachelor of Medical technique, Bachelor of Nursing and Pharmacist, Specialist Level 1 in Microbiology. In addition to teaching mission, the staffs also undertake the task of microbiological diagnostic testing of the Department of Microbiology, Hospital of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

The Department development of facilities began in October 2007 with a period of renovating laboratories with the support of the Italian government in the Carlo Urbani project. In March 2009, the Carlo Urbani laboratory was put into use with a newly renovated laboratory area ​​about 220m² - including 2 biosafety level 3 laboratories (BSL3) for bacteria and virus research, 01 biosafety level 2 laboratory (BSL2) for cell culture and molecular biology laboratories. The Department has had many scientific research projects carried out in the country as well as international cooperation, especially with Italy, Germany, Estonia, Korea, China, and Thailand, ect. Many international articles have been published.

A number of collaborative research projects have been carried out during this period with a number of foreign partners such as China and Germany. Many scientific articles of academic subject staffs were published in national and international journals.

The activities of the Microbiology Department of University Hospital came into the framework after the Hospital was ranked by the Ministry of Health as a Public Hospital under Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and a type 1 hospital. Laboratory of the Department of Microbiology has carried out routine microbiological diagnostic tests of common pathogenic microorganisms (with BSL2 certification), molecular biology tests to detect some viruses and pathogenic bacteria.

The main mission of the Department:

- Teaching Medical Microbiology for all undergraduate and graduate programs for a specialty of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy

- Doing scientific research in the field of medical microbiology and infectious diseases.

- International cooperation in training and scientific research in the field of medical microbiology and biomedical science.

- Microbiological diagnostic test in medical examination and treatment at Hospital of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

2. ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

Heads of Department over periods:

From 1971 to 1995:                         A/Prof. Le Ba Nhan                   

From 1995 to 2008:                         Dr. Tran Van Hung      

From 2008 to 2018:                         A/Prof. Le Van An                                            

 From October 2018 to present:     A/Prof.  Ngo Viet Quynh Tram     

Personnel:

Currently, the department of Microbiology has 14 staff including 08 lecturers (03 Associate Professors, 05 doctors), 05 medical technicians (04 masters in Biomedical Technology and 01 bachelors of Medical Technology), 01 administrative staff.

Education degrees: 04 PhDs, 06 MSc, 02 current PhD students (01 in Thailand and 01 in EDUSHARE program in Estonia), and 01 current Master students of Biomedical Technology under the joint program between Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and University of Sassari, Italy.

Most of the teaching staffs and technical staff of the Department were well trained from universities in Europe (Germany, Italy, Estonia), China, and Thailand in the field of Microbiology and Biology Molecular

Many technical staffs have been employed to complement the professional work including teaching, scientific research and testing at the University Hospital.

3.  EDUCATION AND TRAINING

3.1. Undergraduate training:

- Teaching medical microbiology for all undergraduate programs including General Medical Doctor, Odonto - Stomatology Doctor, Preventive Medicine Doctor, Traditional Medicine Doctor, Pharmacist, Bachelor of Public Health, Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Technology, Bachelor of Medical Diagnostic Imaging Technology and Bachelor of Nursing ... upgrade from secondary level, College level...

- Guiding students to do graduation thesis General Medical Doctor and Preventive Medicine Doctor.

3.2. Graduate training:

Department of Microbiology takes part in graduate teaching for students with the following majors:

- Teaching and supervising the students of the Joint International Master Course in Medical Biotechnology between Sassari University and Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy from course 1 (2012-2014) to course 7 (2019-2021).

- Graduate School of Functional Medicine - General Microbiology section, by 2018 this graduate program was transformed into the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

- Participating in the PhD training program joint with the university of Sassari - in this activity, the Department's laboratory is the research lab for a number of PhD students carrying out the research projects on infections and microorganisms in Vietnam, a number of scientific staff of the Department has participated in guiding  PhD students (co-supervisor) for some PhD students in this cooperation.

- Training some PhD programs in cooperation with some Nordic countries (EDUSHARE project).

- Specialization for oriented Microbiology  from 2004 to present

- Specialist level I in Microbiology from 2012 to the present

- Specialist level I and II majoring in Tropical and Infectious Disease.

- As supervisors of  Students for PhD thesis, Master thesis, and I / II specialist.

- Participate in the Doctoral thesis defense Council, Master and I / II specialties thesis.

- Participate in teaching CME courses.

4. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION:

The staffs of the Department have presided as well as participated in scientific research projects with different levels such as Protocol level, key ministry level, Hue University level, and University level. The topics focus on research in the field of microbiology and infectious diseases in cooperation with other departments in the university and international units such as Germany (Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Diseases, Hamburg), Italy (thesis researches of master and PhD students in biomedical technology joint with the University of Sassari), Japan (Tokyo Metropolitan University), China (Guangxi Medical University), Korea (Zika virus, ect.).

The total number of projects implemented from 2010 to present is over 40 projects at all levels with training products of more than 30 master students, Specialist level I and II, 04 PhD students, and many graduation thesis of general medicine doctor. The research results have also published in more than 128 articles of national specialized journals and 25 articles of international journals ranked in WoS / Scopus.

*Areas of research interest of the Department:

- Molecular epidemiology of Influenza virus and viruses causing respiratory infections, enteroviruses causing hand, foot and mouth disease, Dengue virus causing dengue fever, HPV causing cervical cancer and sexual papilloma.

- Molecular epidemiology and diagnosis of bacteria including tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacteria tuberculosis complex and drug-resistant Mycobacteria tuberculosis), Streptococcus suis, diagnosis and research of resistance mutations of Helicobacter pylori, ect. , molecular diagnosis of Mycoplasma and Chlamydia causing genital tract infection.

- Development/application of molecular techniques to identify bacteria causing meningitis and emergence/re-emergence viruses.

- Application of molecular biology in the identification of bacterial species by gene/ whole genome sequencing technique.

- Hospital-causing bacteria: clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, drug resistance of hospital-causing bacteria such as MRSA, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii.

- Develop scientific databases, data mining tools on cloud platforms for scientific research, examination, and treatment.

* Participate in teaching, guiding international undergraduate and graduate students from Italy, Sweden and FutureDocs Abroad of the National Leadership Academies, USA.

5.4. Diagnostic test activities:

The department has performed the medical microbiology testing techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of patients at the Hospital of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Many molecular techniques have been performed routinely for diagnostic purposes such as real-time PCR/ RT-PCR procedures for quantifying HBV-DNA, identifying HBV genotype, identifying lamivudine-resistant HBV, identifying HPV genotype, quantifying HCV-RNA, determining HCV genotype, Chlamydia trachomatis, tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).

Through diagnostic testing, the Department has also organized training courses on microbiological testing for 3 to 6 months for staffs in health facilities at lower levels.

Department meeting	Italian Consulate and Prof. Piero Cappuccinelli visiting Carlo Urbani Center- Department of Microbiology
Souvenir photo with the Microbiologists, CDC, USA (left) and the students of FutureDocs Abroad of the National Leadership Academies, USA	Activities in the practice course of Microbiology