Shu-Wei Huang
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Engineering
Seeing inside living tissue without staining it, and seeing fast enough to catch motion, is a hard optical problem. Work in this group builds new light sources and microscopes that extend optical coherence tomography (OCT) — an imaging method that uses the interference of light waves to produce depth-resolved pictures, already standard in eye clinics — into three-dimensional, real-time imaging of living cells, and separately develops a microscope for mapping magnetic fields.
- Fields
Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Physics
- Topics
optical coherence tomography
dynamic contrast optical coherence microscopy
DyC-OCM
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Build a swept-source laser architecture using photonic integrated circuits that delivers both the billion-voxel-per-second rate and the fine depth resolution needed for 3D dynamic contrast optical coherence microscopy, which existing designs cannot provide together.
- Develop a scalable parallel imaging platform and combine the 3D DyC-OCM system with a widefield fluorescence microscope so that label-free dynamic images can be cross-validated against fluorescent labels.
- Image human heart and intestinal organoids over time with 3D DyC-OCM to track cellular viability, necrotic regions and growth dynamics, and compare in vitro organoid development with embryonic and fetal heart and intestine development.
- Engineer a broadband, high-coherence swept laser on lithium niobate on insulator photonics with space-division multiplexing parallel imaging, and apply it to measure ciliary beating in human airway organoids without dyes.
- Produce polymer nanocomposite films loaded with magnetite nanoparticles that have a high Verdet constant and low absorption, testing rare-earth doping, silica coatings against degradation, and other inverse spinel nanoparticles.
- Construct a nanoparticle-based dual-comb magnetic field microscope using a high-power low-noise single-cavity dual-comb source, a 2D spatial disperser and RF electronics, and characterize its sensitivity and resolution on micromagnet array phantoms.
More about the research
The common thread is engineering the laser and detection hardware, often with photonic integrated circuits (optical components miniaturized onto a chip), to break through speed and resolution limits that existing instruments cannot.
Why it matters
Label-free 3D imaging of living organoids could show whether lab-grown heart, intestinal and airway tissues develop like real organs, supporting drug screening and work on respiratory disorders such as cystic fibrosis where ciliary clearance fails. A microscope combining high magnetic sensitivity with micrometer resolution could enable cellular-level magnetic studies and precise fault mapping in integrated circuits for chip makers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
3D dynamic contrast optical coherence microscopy for organoid studies
NIH · Aug 2024 – Jun 2028
Collaborative Research: 3D Label-Free Imaging of Ciliary Beating Dynamics in Human Airway Organoids
NSF · May 2025 – Apr 2028
High-resolution and high-sensitivity nanoparticle based dual-comb magnetic field microscopy
NSF · Feb 2025 – Jan 2028
Closest labs
Amir Safavi-Naeini
Stanford University, CA·Engineering
Design and fabricate multilayer oxide-clad thin-film lithium niobate waveguides and resonators with low loss, high nonlinearity and low sensitivity to fabrication imperfections.
Stephen Boppart
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether adding optical coherence tomography, a light-based imaging method that sees behind the eardrum, to standard pneumatic otoscopy improves diagnostic accuracy and reduces antibiotic prescriptions in children presenting to primary care with ear pain or suspected otitis media.
Benjamin Williams
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Engineering
Demonstrate terahertz frequency combs, lasers emitting many evenly spaced colors, from quantum-cascade vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers by developing new amplifying metasurfaces, fabrication processes and dispersion-compensation elements.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
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