Research

Research Objective

Biomedical Optics Laboratory is focused on developing novel optical methods based on interferometry, scattering and  manipulation of light, for the purpose of (1) imaging biological and medical samples, (2) understanding the physics of diseases, and (3) diagnosing and treating the disease. Hosted by the Department of Physics and the KAIST Institute (KI), the lab is performing highly interdisciplinary research at the interface between technology development, basic biological studies and clinical applications.

The area of research is optics, holography, and biophysics. Prof. Park and colleagues have published +140 peer-reviewed papers with +14,000 citations, including 4 Nat Photon, 1 Nat Mat, 1 Nat Cell Bio, 4 Nat Comm, 1 Science Advances, 4 PRL, 6 PNAS papers.

To learn further, please visit KAST Scientist’s space: http://labs.kast.or.kr/kr/

Two start-up companies with +70 employees have been created from his research (Tomocube, The.Wave.Talk).

Research Interests

• Measuring light field information: quantitative phase imaging and holotomography techniques (optics, algorithms).
• Manipulating light light field: controlling light scattering for imaging in turbid media or 3D display.
• Machine learning approaches in optics: exploiting machine learning approaches for analyzing optical information.
• Bioscience: understanding pathophysiology of cells, organoids, and tissues

Representative Results

• Tomographic measurements of dielectric tensors at optical frequency, Nature Materials, in press
• Data-driven multiplexed microtomography of endogenous subcellular dynamics, Nature Cell Biology, in press
• Three-dimensional label-free visualization and quantification of polyhydroxyalkanoates in individual bacterial cell in its native state, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
• Isotropically resolved label-free tomographic imaging based on tomographic moulds for optical trapping, Light: Science & Applications, 2021
• Intensity-based holographic imaging via space-domain Kramers-Kronig relations, Nature Photonics, 2021
• Non-resonant power-efficient directional Nd:YAG ceramic laser using a scattering cavity, Nature Communications, 2021
• Deep-learning based three-dimensional label-free tracking and analysis of immunological synapses of CAR-T cells, eLife, 2020
• Disordered Optics: Exploiting Multiple Light Scattering and Wavefront Shaping for Non-Conventional Optical Elements, Advanced Materials, 2019
• Ultrathin wide-angle large-area digital 3D holographic display using a non-periodic photon sieve, Nature Communications, 2019
• Quantitative Phase Imaging in Biomedicine, Nature Photonics, 2018
• Tomographic active optical trapping of arbitrarily shaped objects by exploiting 3-D refractive index maps, Nature Communications, 2017
• Ultrahigh-definition dynamic 3D holographic display by active control of volume speckle fields, Nature Photonics, 2017
• Holographic deep learning for rapid optical screening of anthrax spores, Science Advances, 2017
• Exploiting the speckle-correlation scattering matrix for a compact reference-free holographic image sensor, Nature Communications, 2016
• One-wave optical time-reversal mirror by actively coupling arbitrary light fields intro a single-mode reflector, Physical Review Letters, 2016
• Subwavelength light focusing using random nanoparticles, Nature Photonics, 2013
• Full-field sub-wavelength imaging using a scattering super-lens, Physical Review Letters, 2014
• Measuring large optical transmission matrices of disordered media, Physical Review Letters, 2013

Media Coverage