In this webinar hosted by the OSA Imaging Optical Design Technical Group, Dr. Junjie Yao will focus on three major technical new fronts of PAI developed in their group at Duke University. First, PAI has broken the penetration limit and achieved super-deep (~15 cm) imaging by using advanced internal light delivery, extending its applications into internal organ imaging on large animals and humans. Second, by using novel fabrication technologies in optics, acoustics and scanning, miniaturized photoacoustic microscopy has achieved handheld, wearable and head-mounted imaging of skin, brain, and organoids with high spatial–temporal resolutions. Third, taking advantage of a variety of newly developed near-infrared photoacoustic-specific contrast agents, PAI has achieved high-sensitivity high-specificity imaging of malignant cancer, tissue hypoxia, and neuronal activities.

What You Will Learn:

• Basics of photoaocustic effect and photoacoustic imaging
• State-of-the art photoacoustic imaging technologies
• Applications of photoacoustic imaging in basic science and clinical practice

Who Should Attend:

• Graduate students working in optical and ultrasound imaging
• Researchers using photoacoustic imaging in their studies
• Clinicians who are interested in photoacoustic imaging

About the Presenter: Junjie Yao, Duke University

Dr. Junjie Yao is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, and a faculty member of Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke Institute of Brain Sciences, and Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. Dr. Yao received his B.E. (2006) and M.E. (2008) degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University, and his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering at Washington University (2013). Dr. Yao is the receipt of the 2019 IEEE Photonic Society Young Investigator Award. He serves on the editorial board in Scientific Reports, and Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Yao’s research interest is in photoacoustic tomography (PAT) technologies in life sciences, especially in functional brain imaging and early cancer detection. Dr. Yao has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Methods, Nature Medicine, Nature Photonics, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communication, PNAS, and PRL. He (co-)invented photoacoustic Doppler-bandwidth flowmetry, photoacoustic oxygen metabolic microscopy, Super-resolution photoacoustic microscopy, fast-functional photoacoustic microscopy, and reversibly-switchable photoacoustic tomography. Dr. Yao’s lab (PI-Lab) centers on developing beak-through PAT technologies with novel and advanced imaging performance, in terms of spatial resolutions, imaging speed, penetration depth, detection sensitivity, and functionality. Dr. Yao’s lab is interested with all aspects of PAT technology innovations, including efficient light illumination, high-sensitivity ultrasonic detection, super-resolution PAT, high-speed imaging acquisition, novel PA genetic contrast, and precise image reconstruction. On top of the technological advancements, Dr. Yao’s lab is devoted to serve the broad life science and medical communities with matching PAT systems for various research and clinical needs, especially for studying tumor angiogenesis, cancer hypoxia, and brain disorders. More research at http://photoacoustics.pratt.duke.edu/.