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Biophotonics Lab (Immunology Frontier Research Center)
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A lab that examines cells with light, without staining, to explore how immunity works.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading the state of cells with light, without staining.
The Biophotonics Lab was established at the Immunology Frontier Research Center as one of the imaging groups that collaborate with immunology researchers.
Its main focus is creating new technologies to investigate interesting problems in immunology and biology, and much of this is the development of label-free techniques that probe molecular-, cellular-, and tissue-level information without staining.
Of particular interest are the changes that occur in cells that have received immune stimulation.
The lab also collaborates with applied physics research groups at Osaka University.
Key terms
- Label-free
- A way of investigating samples without conventional fluorescent staining or experimental procedures that burden cells
- Raman scattering
- A phenomenon in which light hitting a molecule is scattered with a wavelength shift specific to that molecule. It is used to tell molecules apart
- Quantitative phase microscopy
- A microscopy method that measures the phase shift of light passing through a cell and captures the cell's shape and internal structure numerically
- Compressed sensing
- A signal-processing technique that reconstructs the original image by computation from a small amount of measured data
ResearchResearch themes
To study cell behavior, the lab mainly uses and develops label-free methods that involve no staining. It measures changes in molecular expression, which occur when cells differentiate or respond to stress signals, with Raman scattering, and changes in spatial arrangement with quantitative phase microscopy, and combines the two to gather as much information on cell state as possible.
*Illustrative imageDetecting immune cell activation
Machine learning is used to analyze data from an instrument that combines Raman spectroscopy, quantitative phase microscopy, and autofluorescence, in order to detect fine-grained processes such as macrophage activation. An activation probability can be assigned to each individual cell, and no lengthy staining procedure is required.
*Illustrative imageCompressed sensing in laser-scanning microscopy
The lab states that applying compressed sensing to laser-scanning microscopes reduces photobleaching and increases image acquisition speed.
*Illustrative imageMultimodal imaging
The lab states that multimodal imaging, which combines several stain-free methods, can both map the distribution of molecules and image at video rate.
*Illustrative imageRaman database
The content is that Raman spectroscopy can be used to create reference spectra for identifying specific compounds.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Biophotonics Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students.
- Associate ProfessorNicholas I. Smith
- LecturerNicolas Pavillon
- Assistant ProfessorAlison J. Hobro
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “AFM-Raman-TERS system” AAMonitor96 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Detecting immune cell activation: “Macrophage (NIH BioArt 313)” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Compressed sensing in laser-scanning microscopy: “1982 Prototype of a confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (LSM) ( )” ZEISS Microscopy from Germany / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Multimodal imaging: “HoloMonitorM4-in-incubator” Egelberg / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Raman database: “Portable RAMAN Laser Spectrometer ( )” IAEA Imagebank / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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[レーザー科学研究所] ): “ESA laser testing ESA372639” European Space Agency / CC BY-SA 3.0 igo (cropped) - Related lab (電子顕微鏡理論研究分野
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