Laura Marcu, Ph.D., is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery. Her research interest is in the area of biomedical optics, with a particular focus on development of optical instrumentation for tissue spectroscopy and imaging. Her group is best known for research into the advancement of time-resolved (lifetime) fluorescence techniques for label-free biomedical diagnostics. Her work has been particularly innovative and impactful in three distinct areas: intraoperative fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) with applications in surgical oncology and robotic surgery; intravascular FLIM with applications in cardiovascular diagnostics; and FLIM in multimodal imaging platforms with applications in regenerative medicine. A more recent emphasis in her laboratory is on the integration of optical technologies in multimodal diagnostic platforms (with optical coherence tomography, ultrasound backscatter microscopy, and photoacoustics).
Marcu Laboratory
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Principal InvestigatorLaura Marcu, Ph.D.
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Research Goals
Research in the Marcu Lab promotes better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human diseases through advancements in biophotonics technology – a field at the interface of physical sciences, engineering, biology, and medicine. Current projects target research for the development of optical spectroscopy and imaging techniques for medical diagnostics, integration of these techniques in multimodal tissue diagnostic platforms including optical coherence tomography, Raman spectroscopy, and high-frequency ultrasound technologies, and clinical validation of these technologies. The team studies the relationship between tissue pathology and measured optical signals. Studies are conducted in close collaboration with clinical departments (surgery, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, cardiology, and pathology). The lab's work is supported by several major National Institutes of Health research grants.
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Current Projects
- Interventional Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (iFLIM): Technology advancing and integrating iFLIIM technology in clinical settings for real-time in-situ tissue diagnosis and surgical guidance
- Interferometric Diffuse Optical Spectroscpy (iDOS) Advancing a novel iDOS technology for continuous and non-invasive blood flow monitoring in critical clinical sections
- Intelligent data analytics and systems design: AI-ML-DL-VIS: Developing an dvalidating a set of advanced analytical methods including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) for intelligent instrument design, data/image analysis, visualization (VIS), and clinical decision making