Overview, and mission statement
 

Let’s be a little philosophical first. Stochastic process is fundamental in universe and in life. Evolution is a perfect example, a billion-years process of random mutations and natural selection. Since we are an optics lab, the particle-wave duality of light is another example of stochasticity. On the other hand, the stochastic process is not running free but governed by higher-level guiding principles. Survival is for evolution, and physics of electromagnetic wave governs light behavior outside the quantum regime.  
 

When both are true, there are several questions that are important to the understanding of any natural processes: where/when/what is stochastic, where/when/what guiding principle may apply, how to describe the stochastic process, and how to formulate the guiding principle?
 

It is conceivable that many biological/pathological processes are stochastic and guided at the same time. To ask and attempt answering the above questions for specific processes (e.g. how brain circuit works!), we use optical imaging and imaging data science as our tool.  We emphasize large-scale high-throughput imaging methods, to generate enough data and statistics to ensemble the random process and then try to understand the guiding principle holistically, a balance of both. The beauty of optical imaging is that it offers rich multi-dimensional data.  The optical imaging data are at least five-dimensional, including three spatial dimensions (3), time (4), optical spectrum (5), without even considering  a myriad of imaging contrasts. The imaging scale can cross 6-7 orders of magnitude, from nanoscale to macroscale. The challenge is that sometimes the data can be too much without knowing what to look for. Designing novel instrumentation to generate multi-dimensional data as well as mining and making sense of them for specific scientific questions are fascinating, and that is essentially what we are about! In short, our research is to build optical imaging tool to understand the fundamentals of life or diseases, and ultimately engineer approaches to improve health.  A list of  research topics embodying the philosophical view is below, with relevant publications.  
 

Speaking of stochasticity again, what we have in the lab is another random process. For whatever reasons and opportunities, a group of people from diverse backgrounds, different places, at different ages end up together at Smith building in Hopkins and share a piece of our lives together. One thing leads us here together is the hope that someday the work we put it, the technology we invent, the struggle and joy we share will improve someone’s health. After all, we are biomedical engineers and that hope is also our mission.