10/10 – Hao F. Zhang, Northwestern University
Biomedical Engineering Seminar
October 10, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location
BME Seminar in SEO 236
Address
851 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
Download iCal FileSpeaker:
Hao F. Zhang, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Northwestern University
Title: Combining super-resolution microscopy and optical coherence tomography for multi-scale imaging
Abstract: My group focuses on two core technologies, spectroscopic single-molecule localization microscopy (sSMLM) and visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT), and their applications to vision and cancer imaging at the length scale ranging from single molecules to whole human eyes. While traditional OCT uses near-infrared light, vis-OCT leverages the significantly higher tissue contrast within the visible light spectral range to extract physiological and pathological information, in addition to ultra-high (1.3 µm) resolution anatomical imaging. Using vis-OCT in both patients and small animal models, we detected retinal ischemia well before the onset of angiogenesis, produced the first in vivo three-dimensional imaging of the entire ocular outflow pathway, and discovered new biomarkers of neuronal damage. In contrast, sSMLM offers multiplex super-resolution imaging with a spatial resolution of up to 1 nm by analyzing the spatial locations and full fluorescence emission spectra of stochastic single-molecule fluorescence emissions. Using sSMLM, we overcame the long-standing challenges of rejecting fluorescence impurities, investigated single-molecule fluorescence heterogeneities, and imaged molecular interactions with drastically different molecular concentrations. In this talk, I will describe the working principles of vis-OCT and sSMLM and how we combine them to investigate multiple blinding diseases, especially glaucoma, comprehensively.
Date posted
Aug 21, 2025
Date updated
Sep 15, 2025