Speaker: Dr. Fake Lu, Harvard University
Time: 10:00 a.m., November 3, 2017 (Friday) 
Venue：YIZHI Hall

Abstract:
Label-free optical microscopy is an emerging technology in biology and medicine to perform live imaging without affecting cell functions or in vivo imaging of human with no fluorescent staining. While Raman spectroscopy has been used for molecular characterization for cancer detection with high sensitivity, imaging speed is always an issue. By coherently exciting and detecting the chemical bond vibration in molecules, coherent Raman scattering (CRS) microscopy, with two modalities of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), has been used for label-free imaging of various biomolecules or drugs with high spatiotemporal resolution and high chemical specificity. 

In this seminar, I will first review recent technical efforts that have greatly improved CRS imaging speed, detection sensitivity and spectral acquisition, and I will further present several label-free biomolecular imaging applications of the technology. In particular, transforming SRS microscopy for clinical use is a major direction of my research. The methodology of SRS label-free histopathology for rapid cancer detection and image-guided precision surgery has shown a great potential to impact on the current clinical practices of pathology and surgery. 

His current research aims to establish an advanced biophotonics program focusing on coherent Raman and multiphoton microscopy technologies for imaging of living cells, in vivo animals and fresh human tissue at the most translational frontier for neuro-oncology and neuroscience studies.

Biography:
Dr. Fake Lu received his Bachelor degree in Optoelectronics and Master degree in Optical Engineering from Zhejiang University in China in 2003 and 2006, respectively, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2010.
Dr. Lu completed his initial postdoc training at Harvard University with Professor Sunney Xie (2011-2014). He was an Instructor in Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2014-2017). He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Binghamton University, State University of New York. His research focuses on biophotonics and neurophotonics.

Working Experience:
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (05.2014–Present)
Department of Neurosurgery
Assistant Professor
Transforming stimulated Raman imaging for image-guided precision neurosurgery
- Established the methodology and the first reference system for label-free neurosurgical pathology with stimulated Raman microscopy;
- Published the first database of stimulated Raman imaging of brain tumors;
- Label-free characterization of biomolecules in human breast cancer (ongoing).

Harvard University (02.2011–Present)
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Research Fellow
Advisor: Professor X. Sunney Xie, PhD
Advanced technology and biomedical applications of stimulated Raman microscopy(collaborated with Dr. David E. Fisher at MGH-Dermatology)
- Developed multiplex stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy based on the acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology and Fourier Transform doubledemodulation.
- Traced lipid production in microalgae for potential green energy application using the developed multiplex SRS system.
- Enabled multicolor SRS imaging with multi-channel parallel detection;
- Realized label-free DNA imaging in vivo for the first time;
- Demonstrated in vivo counting of mitotic rate in the mouse skin;
- Demonstrated label-free SRS histology for human skin cancer diagnosis.  

National University of Singapore (02.2006–01.2011)
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Graduate Researcher (PhD)
Contributed to the development of coherent Raman and multiphoton bioimaging
- Developed interferometric polarization methods to suppress the nonresonant background in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy;
- Investigated the progression and correlation of liver steatosis and fibrosis in the same rat model using an integrated multimodal nonlinear optical imaging platform, including CARS, two-photon fluorescence (TPF) and second harmonic generation (SHG).  

Zhejiang University (09.1999–01.2006)
Graduate Researcher (MS)
- Designed and fabricated narrowband optical filters to investigate spectral instability of the coating using ion-assisted-deposition method;
- Developed and integrated a visible projector based on liquid-crystal-on-silicon;