Our lab develops novel optical methods based on light scattering, interferometry, and microscopy, to image cells and tissues quantitatively and with nanoscale sensitivity. We apply our techniques to both basic science (e.g., cell dynamics, cell growth, intracellular transport, membrane fluctuations, tissue optics) and clinical applications (e.g., blood screening, cancer diagnosis). We are located in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prof. Gabriel Popescu is faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and affiliated faculty in Bioengineering; our group members are from Physics, Electrical, Mechanical, and Bioengineering.

• 4/27/2013 NEWS: Renjie Zhou is a recipient of 2013 Beckman Institute Graduate Fellowship
• 4/27/2013 NEWS: SLIM is one of top 20 most cited papers in Optics Express over the past 2 years
• 4/26/2013 PRESS: "Real-time quantitative phase imaging in biomedicine", SPIE
• 3/11/2013 NEWS: Hoa Pham receives the Dan Vivoli fellowship for the development of applications for the GPU
• 3/4/2013 NEWS: "Fast phase reconstruction in white light diffraction phase microscopy" have been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 3/4/2013 NEWS: "Gradient field microscopy for label-free diagnosis of human biopsies [invited]" have been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 2/15/2013 PUBLICATION: B. Bhaduri et al.,"Cardiomyocyte Imaging Using Real-Time Spatial Light Interference Microscopy (SLIM)", PLoS ONE
• 2/15/2013 NEWS: New Digital Holography Method Developed, Beckman Institute
• 2/7/2013 PUBLICATION: H. Pham et al.,"Real Time Blood Testing Using Quantitative Phase Imaging", PLoS ONE
• 11/26/2012 NEWS: Taewoo Kim is the 2nd Place Student Award Winner at the Optical Society of America’s BIOMED Conference, Miami 2012.
• 11/25/2012 NEWS: “Quantitative phase imaging of live cells using fast Fourier phase microscopy" is top 20 most cited Applied Optics papers in the past 5 years.
• 11/14/2012 PUBLICATION: R. Wang et al.,"Nanoscale fluctuations and surface tension measurements in droplets using phase-resolved low-coherence interferometry", Appl. Opt. (special issue on holography)
• 11/7/2012 PRESS: Leuchtendes Straßennetz der Körperzellen
• 11/5/2012 PUBLICATION: R. Wang et al.,"Dispersion relation Fluorescence Spectroscopy", Phys. Rev. Lett
• 11/2/2012 PRESS: New Method Empowers Fluorescence Microscopy
• 10/31/2012 GOOD NEWS: Mustafa Mir passes the PhD Preliminary Examination
• 10/30/2012 GOOD NEWS: Hoa Pham passes the PhD Preliminary Examination
• 10/30/2012 PUBLICATION: H. Pham et al., "Fast phase reconstruction in white light diffraction phase microscopy," Applied Optics (Special issue on holography)
• 10/30/2012 PUBLICATION: T. Kim et al., "Gradient field microscopy for label-free diagnosis of human biopsies," Applied Optics (Special issue on holography)
• 10/20/2012 PRESS: Optical Microscopy Quantifies Live Cells Without Labels
• 10/5/2012 NEWS: "Spectroscopic diffraction phase microscopy" have been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 9/29/2012 PRESS: Our research featured on the front page of the National Science Foundation (article)
• 9/29/2012 PRESS: Undergraduate researcher Ryan Tapping featured by I-STEM
• 9/28/2012 News: epi-DPM system in action
• 9/28/2012 PRESS: "New method monitors semiconductor etching as it happens – with light”, UIUC News bureau
• 9/28/2012 PUBLICATION: C. Edwards, A. Arbabi, G. Popescu, and L. Goddard, "Optically monitoring and controlling nanoscale topography during semiconductor etching," Nature-Light Science & Applications
• 9/13/2012 GOOD NEWS: QLI’s youngest member, Semanti is born on September 11, 2012. Postdoctoral Associate Basanta Bhaduri and Sushmita Adhikari are proud parents of a beautiful baby girl.
• 8/13/2012 BOOK CHAPTER: M. Mir et al.,Quantitative Phase Imaging, Progress In Optics
• 8/10/2012 PUBLICATION: H. Pham et al., Spectroscopic diffraction phase microscopy, Opt. Lett..
• 8/10/2012 PRESS: "Gradient field microscopy allows label-free disease diagnosis”, Laser Focus World (cover)
• 8/2/2012 NEWS: "Derivative method for phase retrieval in off-axis quantitative phase imaging" have been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 7/18/2012 NEWS: Prof. Popescu testifies in Congressional Hearing
• 6/29/2012 PRESS: "Microscope technology sees sub-cellular in 3D”, Futurity.org
• 6/28/2012 PRESS: "Stealthy Microscopy Method Visualizes E. coli Sub-cellular Structure in 3D”, Beckman Institute
• 6/28/2012 PUBLICATION: M. Mir, S. D. Babacan, et al., Visualizing Escherichia coli Sub-Cellular Structure Using Sparse Deconvolution Spatial Light Interference Tomography, PLoS ONE.
• 5/28/2012 PUBLICATION: B. Bhadruri et al., Derivative method for phase retrieval in off-axis quantitative phase imaging, Opt. Lett..
• 4/26/2012 NEWS: " Diffraction phase microscopy with white light" and "Gradient field microscopy of unstained specimens" have been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 4/11/2012 GOOD NEWS: Ruoyu wins the "Student employee of the year" runner up out of over 20 nominations from 20 departments on campus.
• 4/7/2012 NEWS: “Diffraction phase microscopy with white light" by Bhaduri. et al, is one of top downloaded papers in March in Optics Letters.
• 4/6/2012 GOOD NEWS: Ruoyu receives the 2012 E. C. Jordan Award for excellence in Electrical Engineering by a senior.
• 4/3/2012 GOOD NEWS: Mustafa Mir receives the 2012-2013 Ernest A. Reid Fellowship Award in Electrical Engineering for exceptional promise for an academic career.
• 3/14/2012 PUBLICATION: B. Bhadruri et al., Diffraction phase microscopy with white light, Opt. Lett..
• 3/7/2012 PUBLICATION: T. Kim et al., Gradient field microscopy of unstained specimens, Opt. Exp.
• 2/18/2012 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu is the 2012 Innovation Discovery Award Finalist
• 2/14/2012 PRESS: "Stain free imaging zooms on cancer", Futurity.org
• 2/9/2012 PRESS: "New Quantitative Microscopy Method Offers Stain-free Cancer Detection”, Beckman Institute
• 2/1/2012 NEWS: " Laplace field microscopy for label-free imaging of dynamic biological structures," has been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 1/20/2012 GOOD NEWS: Mustafa Mir was awarded the 2012 Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Graduate Research Award for “excellence in research in the areas of electromagnetics or antennas”. Congrats, Mustafa!
• 1/20/2012 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu appointed Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study for AY2012-AY2013.
• 12/10/2011 NEWS: “Blood testing at the single cell level using quantitative phase and amplitude microscopy" by Mir. et al, is one of top downloaded papers in November in Biomedical Optics Express.
• 12/10/2011 NEWS: “Cell imaging beyond the diffraction limit using sparse deconvolution spatial light interference microscopy” by Babacan et al. is one of top downloaded papers in 2011 in Biomedical Optics Express (>1,000 downloads).
• 12/09/2011 GOOD NEWS: Ru Wang passes the Preliminary Examination
• 12/05/2011 NEWS: " Tissue refractive index as marker of disease," has been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 11/31/2011 NEWS: Dispersion-relation phase spectroscopy of intracellular transport," has been selected for publication in the most recent issue of the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (VJBO)
• 11/30/11 PUBLICATION: T. Kim et al., Laplace field microscopy for label-free imaging of dynamic biological structures, Opt. Lett.
• 11/22/11 PRESS: Optically Measuring Single Cell Mass, Imaging & Microscopy
• 11/10/2011 NEWS: Ruoyu Zhu receives the Frank D. and Irene M. Low Scholarship from , in recognition to “his hard work and dedication to your education”.
• 11/07/11 PUBLICATION: M. Mir et al., Blood testing at the single cell level using quantitative phase and amplitude microscopy , Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 11/07/11 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Tissue refractive index as marker of diesease, J. Biomed. Opt.
• 11/06/11 NEWS: Spatial Light Interference Tomography is one of top downloads from Optics Express.
• 11/02/11 PRESS: Biotechnology Calendar Inc, Biomedical Optics Research Breakthrough by Urbana-Champaign Scientists.
• 11/02/2011 NEWS: Joonoh Lims and Shamira Sridharans papers featured by OSA.
• 11/02/11 PRESS: Beckman Institute News, Beckman Researchers Report on Biomedical Imaging Advances
• 10/25/11 PUBLICATION: R. Zhu et al., Correlation induced spectral changes in tissues, Opt. Exp.
• 10/17/11 Press: IOP Science LabTalk, Light reveals intracellular traffic
• 10/03/11 PUBLICATION: R. Wang et al., Dispersion relation phase spectroscopy of intracellular transport, Opt. Exp.
• 09/27/11 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Spatial Light Interference Tomography (SLIT), Opt. Exp.
• 09/22/11 PUBLICATION: S. Sridharan et al., Simultaneous optical measurements of cell motility and growth, Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 09/13/11 PUBLICATION: J. Lim et al., Born Approximation model for light scattering by red blood cells, Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 09/06/11 NEWS: “One-dimensional deterministic transport in neurons” by Ru Wang et al., featured on the cover of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
• 08/25/11 PRESS: Imaging & Microscopy, Spatial Light Interference Microscopy: Sheding Light on Cell Growth
• 08/25/11 PRESS: UI News, New imaging method sheds light on cell growth
• 08/23/11 PUBLICATION: R. Wang et al., One-dimensional deterministic transport in neurons by dispersion relation phase spectroscopy, J. Phys. Condens. Matter.
• 08/16/11 PRESS: Futurity.org, Optics used to track single cell’s growth
• 08/01/11 PRESS: Publication of the Week, Cell Observatory, University of Leiden
• 07/25/11 PUBLICATION: M. Mir et al., Optical Measurement of cycle dependent cell growth, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
• 06/08/11 PUBLICATION: E. Ben-Isaac et al., Effective Temperature of Red Blood Cell Membrane Fluctuations, Phys. Rev. Lett.
• 06/02/11 PUBLICATION: D. Babacan et al., Cell imaging beyond the diffraction limit using sparse deconvolution SLIM, Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 06/01/11 PUBLICATION: H. Pham et al., Off-axis QPI processing using CUDA, Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 05/24/11 PRESS: Real-time look at dynamics of live cells, Futurity
• 05/13/11 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., Measuring the scattering parameters of tissues from QPI of thin slices, Opt. Lett.
• 04/24/11 GOOD NEWS: Hoa Pham and his wife Lilly had a healthy baby boy, Minh Nat Pham, 7lbs 4 oz!
• 04/08/11 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo Wang is awarded the Sundaram Seshu Fellowship
• 04/01/11 PUBLICATION: Y. K. Parl et al., Measurement of the nonlinear elasticity of red blood cell membrane, Phys. Rev. E, 83 (2011)
• 04/01/11 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Scattering-phase theorem, Opt. Lett.
• 04/01/11 GOOD NEWS: Mustafa Mir wins Bioengineering Day Poster Award
• 02/28/11 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Label-free intracellular transport measured by SLIM, J. Biomed. Opt.
• 02/03/11 PUBLICATION: R. Wang et al., Effective 3D viscoelasticity of red blood cells measured by DPM, Biomed. Opt. Exp.
• 01/27/11 PUBLICATION: Y.K. Park et al., Light scattering of human red blood cells during metabolic remodeling of the membrane, J. Biomed. Opt.
• 01/17/11 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Spatial Light Interference Microsopy, Opt. Exp.
• 01/01/11 FAREWELL: After three years as postdoc, Huafeng Ding leaves the QLI Lab to join the Dept. of Justice
• 12/17/10 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo Wang receives the Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Graduate Research Award for 2011.
• 12/13/10 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., JCNT, Vol.7, No. 12, pp 2501-2511(2010)
• 12/07/10 GOOD NEWS: Mustafa Mir passes his Qualifying Exam and deposits his masters thesis.
• 10/24/10 PUBLICATION: K. Park et al., PNAS,(2010)
• 09/07/10 GOOD NEWS: New NSF grant, MRI: Development of Spatial Light Interference Microscope
• 08/01/10 BOOK: Nanobiophotonics, Edited by G. Popescu, McGraw-Hill (2010).
• 07/24/10 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., Biomed. Opt. Exp.,1(1),(2010)
• 06/28/10 PRESS, Cover: Microscopy mixes it up, Advanced Imaging Magazine
• 06/22/10 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo Wang passes the Preliminary Examination
• 04/28/10 PRESS: New microscopy technique reveals mechanics of blood cell membranes
• 04/20/10 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu’s new graduate course approved as permanent: “ECE 564 Modern Light Microscopy”
• 04/20/10 GOOD News: Zhuo Wang wins Bioengineering Day poster award
• 04/07/10 PUBLICATION: M. Mir et al., JBO,15(2),(2010)
• 03/30/10 PUBLICATION: Y. Park et al., PNAS (2010)
• 03/17/10 PRESS: Krannert Imag(in)ing Exhibit
• 02/19/10 PUBLICATION: Wang et. al, Opt. Lett. 35, 208, 2010 in Feb. 2010 issue of VJNST.
• 01/26/10 PUBLICATION, COVER: Y. Park et al., PNAS,107,4 (2010)
• 01/19/10 PRESS: New Optical Technology Enables Red Blood Cell Finding
• 01/15/10 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al., Opt. Lett. 35, 208 (2010)
• 01/13/10 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., Opt. Exp. 18, 1569 (2010)
• 01/04/10 PRESS: The Cell Whisperers
• 09/10/09-EVENT: The iOptics Seminar Series starts; Prof. Popescu and Mustafa Mir present an Optics Timeline
• 09/08/09-TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Imaging Initiative talk at Beckman
• 09/04/09-GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu on incomplete list of excellent teachers
• 08/25/09 PRESS: Nano-Biophotonics Summer School a success!
• 07/24/09 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo and He had marriage ceremonies in China
• 06/27/09 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk at Michael Feld Symposium, MIT
• 06/27/09 TALK: R. Wang gives invited talk at ASCE-ASME-SES Conference, Blacksburg, VA
• 06/26/09 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives lecture at Physical Sciences Incorporated, Andover, MA
• 06/24/09 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Applied Math Seminar, SEAS, Harvard
• 06/01/09 EVENT: NanoBiophotonics Summer School starts at Beckman
• 05/01/09 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 1372 (2009)
• 02/06/09 PUBLICATION: M. Mir et al. Opt. Exp. 17, 2579 (2009)
• 01/01/09 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu receives CAREER Award from NSF
• 12/18/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk, Advanced Photonics Techniques in Biology, IOP, London
• 12/05/08 PUBLICATION: H. Ding et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 238102 (2008)
• 12/05/08 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu receives Grainger Grant for translational research
• 12/01/08 GOOD NEWS: NanoBiophotonics Summer School Proposal with nanoHub approved by NSF
• 12/01/08 GOOD NEWS: Prof. Popescu’s proposal for a new course, ECE 598 Special Topics in Light Microscopy, approved for Spring 09 offering
• 11/21/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Bioengineering Department Seminar at U of I Chicago
• 11/05/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk, Cell & Molecular Biology / Biophysics Symposium, UIUC
• 11/01/08 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo Wang passed his qualifying exam. Congratulations!
• 08/08/08 GOOD NEWS: Zhuo and He got their marriage license from Detroit, MI. Congratulations!
• 07/14/08 TALK: H. Ding gives invited talk at OSA- COTA Conference, Boston, MA
• 06/01/08 PUBLICATION: Z. Wang et al. Opt Lett 33, 1270 (2008). It is the first QLI paper (baby) in print at ~9 months after the lab was established!
• 05/27/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk at European Light Microscopy Initiative, Davos, Switzerland
• 02/14/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Bioengineering Department Seminar, UIUC
• 02/04/08 NEW PEOPLE: Mustafa Mir joins the QLI lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
• 02/01/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Digital Signal Processing Seminar Series, UIUC
• 01/27/08 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk Photonics West, San Jose, CA
• 12/01/07 NEW PEOPLE: Ru Wang (MS MechSE) joins the QLI Lab as PhD student. Welcome!
• 11/04/07 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives Physics Colloquium, University of Delaware
• 11/01/07 NEW PEOPLE: Dr. Huafeng Ding (PhD in Physics) joins the QLI Lab as postdoctoral associate. Welcome!
• 10/14/07 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives BioInterest Group Seminar, UIUC
• 10/01/07 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives invited talk at OMS Conference, Capri, Italy
• 09/01/07 TALK: Prof. Popescu gives NanoHour Talk at Beckman
• 08/16/07 NEW PEOPLE: Z. Wang (MS EE) joins the QLI Lab as its first PhD student. Welcome!
• 08/16/07 Prof. Popescu officially starts as a faculty in the ECE Department and establishes the Quantitative Light Imaging Laboratory at Beckman