Our biophotonics research focuses on how light interacts with biological material to create new tools for studying health and disease. We develop advanced imaging technologies that can measure properties like mass, stiffness, and viscosity, things that are hard or even impossible to detect with traditional methods. These physical properties play a key role in understanding how tissues form, how cancer spreads, and whether a pregnancy is progressing normally.
Our microscopes are special because they can measure these properties without physically touching or disturbing the sample. This breakthrough was named one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Science Innovations of 2022.
At the St. John Center, we aim to turn these discoveries into real-world tools for doctors and researchers. We are building user-ready devices like:
- A Brillouin-OCT ophthalmoscope to diagnose and monitor eye diseases
- A confocal Brillouin microscope for examining cell mechanics at very high resolution
- A new type of flow cytometer that sorts cells based on their physical traits instead of relying only on fluorescent labels
