Finishing two degrees—one a master’s—before turning 21 makes Ky Duong stand out. He is graduating with both a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology and drug development and a progressive master’s degree in management of drug development.
“My experience exceeded my expectations going into the university,” Duong says.
Time management has been essential to Duong’s success as a scholar, advocate and budding researcher. He volunteered with Team Awareness Combating Overdose (TACO) to distribute fentanyl test strips. He served as an undergraduate research assistant at the USC Alcohol and Brain Research Laboratory, helping Daryl Davies—the Timothy M. Chan Professor of Complementary Therapeutics—and his team study a bioflavonoid compound for potentially treating alcohol-associated liver disease. This past summer, Duong served as a toxicology intern at Vividion Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in San Diego.
With the support of Associate Director of Undergraduate Education Terry Church, Duong also helped start Beta Rho Chi at USC, USC’s first biotechnology and pharmaceutical honors society. Beta Rho Chi has since grown to 100 members and spawned a second chapter at Cornell University.
All the while, he juggled two rigorous degrees. The progressive master’s program requires 26 additional units, covering translational science, regulatory frameworks, quality assurance and business. For Duong, business and marketing were brand-new territory—and a welcome challenge.
“I knew this would propel me further in my academic career while also paving a clearer path for my future in the industry,” Duong says. “And I saved a lot of money while at it.”
Duong’s interest in pharmacy began early. Growing up in Clovis, Calif., the son of Vietnamese immigrants—a school bus driver and a small business owner—he imagined as a child the possibility of inventing “a potion to make you live forever.” Later, as a high school gymnast and diver, he incurred injuries that led to observing the impact different medicines had on his body’s recovery.
“That fed into my overall interest in drug development,” Duong recalls. “I wanted to make something innovative that helps people.”
USC Mann’s pharmacology and drug development major seemed like a dream come true. “This is exactly what I wanted to do with my entire life!” he says. While he was at first focused on becoming a pharmacist, his perspective expanded after exposure to lab research and industry professionals.
“I liked watching how ideas turn into real products,” Duong adds. A course on forensic toxicology fascinated him, particularly the historical use of poisons. Another on plant-derived medicines piqued his interest in how different cultures approach healing.
Associate Professor Hovhannes Gukasyan remembers the impression made by Duong’s thirst for knowledge. “He wants to learn all the time,” Gukasyan says. “And that’s what drug discovery is all about—curiosity.”
In addition to Gukasyan’s mentorship, Duong credits Eunjoo Pacifici, chair of the Department of Regulatory and Quality Sciences, as a major influence in channeling his passion for drug development into future career options.
In turn, Duong enjoys sharing career objectives with other students through his work with Beta Rho Chi. “We’ve really opened up a door for a lot of students here who didn’t realize that this was a path they could take in their career,” he says. In addition to pharmacology majors, the interdisciplinary society includes students majoring in business, neuroscience, quantitative biology and engineering.
For Duong, the benefit is as much personal as professional. “The biggest thing for me was finding a community,” he says. “That’s what being in college is all about, finding the people who uplift and inspire you.”
Going forward, Duong hopes to find a research associate position at a Southern California pharmaceutical company. He plans to make a career in toxicology, with goals that include advancing animal-free testing.
Whatever the future holds, he knows his education at USC has set him up for success. “It’s made me a really well-rounded individual,” Duong says, “and prepared to do anything I want.”