Jonathan Liu
University of Washington, WA·Biomedical Engineering
Doctors still diagnose most diseases from tissue the way they did a century ago. A specimen is cut into thin slices, stained, and examined as flat 2D images on glass slides.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
3D pathology
light-sheet microscopy
nondestructive histology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Build a multi-resolution hybrid open-top light-sheet microscope using a non-orthogonal dual-objective (NODO) design to improve resolution, imaging depth and compatibility with tissue-clearing protocols and sample holders.
- Develop automated, standardized methods to label and optically clear clinical tissue specimens, producing a reliable fluorescent analog of standard H&E pathology staining for 3D imaging.
- Develop image-guided macro-dissection tools that use 3D microscopy images to select regions of thick tissue for sampling, and test whether this improves the sensitivity of genomic assays.
More about the research
This samples only a tiny fraction of the tissue, misses the 3D shapes of structures that can predict how a disease will behave, and destroys material that could be used for other tests. Slide-free 3D histology instead images whole, intact biopsies and surgical specimens. It can sample over 100 times more tissue, reveal 3D cell arrangements, keep specimens intact for later biomarker testing, and simplify the workflow.
Why it matters
Nondestructive 3D pathology could improve diagnosis, prediction of outcomes and personalized treatment choices for patients with cancer, kidney disease and neurodegenerative diseases. It examines far more of each biopsy and keeps the tissue available for molecular tests. Guided tissue sampling may also make genomic assays more sensitive. The technology is being translated through a licensed 3D pathology services company.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dongkyun Kang
University of Arizona, AZ·Biomedical Engineering
Build a new portable confocal microscope (PCM) that rapidly and repeatably images Meissner's corpuscles, touch-sensing nerve endings in fingertip skin, in cancer patients.
Kenneth Dunn
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Physiology
Develop a multi-scale, multi-resolution approach to imaging whole rodent and human kidneys, based on a new hybrid open-top lightsheet microscope that scans large cleared tissues with a thin sheet of light.
Jian-Young Wu
Georgetown University, DC·Neuroscience
Test whether patterned pinhole illuminators, built from glass-disk pinhole patterns or microlens arrays, reduce background light and strengthen calcium signals in brain tissue densely labeled with the calcium sensor GCaMP6f.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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