Molecular Bioimaging and Molecular Biomimetics Lab

We pursue three interconnected research directions at the intersection of materials science, chemistry, and biology. We study how biological architecture can be read, engineered, and functionally translated across scales. Our research integrates molecular imaging pipelines for high-dimensional spatial biology with the engineering of neuronal architectures into functional bioelectronic and neurodevice platforms. We develop integrated molecular imaging pipelines for the quantitative analysis of cells and tissues. Rather than focusing on imaging alone, we optimize the full experimental and analytical workflow, including tissue preparation, labeling chemistry, iterative processing, microscopy, image alignment, signal extraction, and downstream quantitative analysis. This systems-level approach improves reproducibility, scalability, and comparability across samples and experiments. Our goal is to make molecular imaging more accurate and more useful as a quantitative platform for biology. Using multiplexed immunofluorescence, spectral unmixing-free imaging, cyclic imaging, and computational image registration, we generate high-dimensional spatial datasets that reveal molecular states, cellular organization, and tissue architecture in cancer, the brain, and other complex biological systems. We investigate how biological structures can be transformed into functional devices. In particular, we engineer neuronal architectures through surface patterning, molecular perturbation, and controlled culture, then analyze their structural features using advanced imaging methods such as expansion microscopy and multiplexed imaging. These structural readouts are subsequently linked to metallization, electrical characterization, and device behavior. Our long-term goal is to understand how bi