Research

Neuroendocrine Tumors

We are interested in studying gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors, with a special focus on gastrin-secreting tumors called gastrinomas. We are applying multiphoton and fluorescence imaging for advancing basic understanding cell signaling and metabolic assessment, and also with the aim of developing improved surgical localization techniques. We also are developing an animal model of neuroendocrine tumors to assess imaging techniques for surgical localization and minimally-invasive detection.

Gastrointestinal Cancer Early Detection

One major area of research in our laboratory is early detection of gastrointestinal cancers, including esophageal and gastric cancer. We aim to develop advanced optical imaging methods for early detection of these diseases. We are developing custom imaging endoscopes implementing spectral and polarimetric imaging that select the most diagnostically relevant spectral components for targeted disease diagnostics. We also have ongoing collaborative work to develop optical coherence tomography imaging probes.

Multiscale Microstructural Brain Imaging

Our lab is interested in applying optical imaging for microstructural imaging of the brain. This has applications ranging from basic science to understand fiber tracts in the brain, to clinical application such as surgical guidance. We aim to implement polarization imaging for assessment of cellular structure, anisotropy, and plaque content in brain tissues, and combine this with diffusion MRI to yield multiscale information.