Born in Saigon in Vietnam, Thien Thanh Dang-Vu obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of Liège in 2004.  He then completed his doctorate in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the Cyclotron Research Centre of the University of Liège, and was awarded it in 2008.  At the same time he completed his specialisation in neurology at the CHU (University Hospital) of Liège until 2009.  He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the FNRS (National Fund for Scientific Research).
 
Thien Thanh Dang-Vu studies the mechanisms of sleep using neuroimaging methods such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). In particular, he is seeking to understand how sleep oscillations influence cerebral activity, the perception of the external environment and the memorisation of information. He is also interested in sleep medicine and the use of neuroimaging in this context.

In the context of his clinical and scientific work, he completed several internships abroad, notably at the University of Montréal, at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris and at the department of neurology of the University Hospital of Zurich. He completed a first post-doctoral fellowship in sleep medicine in Boston (Harvard Medical School), and is currently completing a second post-doctoral fellowship at the centre for advanced studies in sleep medicine at the University of Montréal.

Thien Thanh Dang-Vu has been awarded several scientific prizes, notably from the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS), the Belgian Association for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (BASS) and the Leon Frederic fund. He is the author of articles on neuroimaging, sleep physiology and sleep medicine, and has published in journals such as PNAS and Current Biology.