Biophotonics, optical biopsies, and 3D chemical specific tissue imaging

Prof. Howard's research focuses on how the interaction of photons and tissue can be used to aid diagnosis and fundamental research in biological fields. The group's work includes developing new techniques to image molecules in real-time, in living tissue in 3D (e.g. fast, full frame, super-resolution FLIM), contrast agent development (e.g. encapsulation of nonlinear optical dyes), and open-source software tools to enhance biomedical researcher's ability to produce low-noise, super-resolution microscopy images using conventional laboratory microscopes.

Relevant publications

Zhang, Y., Nichols, E. L., Zellmer, A. M., Guldner, I. H., Kankel, C., Zhang, S., Howard, S. S., and Smith, C. J. “Generating Intravital Super-Resolution Movies with Conventional Microscopy Reveals Actin Dynamics That Construct Pioneer Axons.” Development 146, no. 5 (2019)

Zhang, Y., Benirschke, D., Abdalsalam, O., and Howard, S. S. “Generalized Stepwise Optical Saturation Enables Super-Resolution Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy” Biomed. Opt. Express 9, no. 9 (2018)

Khan, A. A., Vigil, G. D., Zhang, Y., Fullerton-Shirey, S. K., and Howard, S. S. “Silica-Coated Ruthenium-Complex Nanoprobes for Two-Photon Oxygen Microscopy in Biological Media” Opt. Mater. Express 7, no. 3 (2017)