About the Group
The Optical Diagnostics for Diseased and Engineered Tissue (ODDET) group focuses on the development of optical spectroscopic imaging approaches to monitor and characterize biochemical and morphological aspects of tissue in non-invasive ways. The work relies heavily on optical instrument development and quantitative data analysis approaches that often involve modeling and understanding of the detailed interactions between light and biological matter. Our approaches exploit linear and non-linear optical phenomena and include light scattering spectroscopy, linear and non-linear microscopy (second harmonic generation and two-photon excited fluorescence) and flow cytometry. Specific applications of our work include early cancer detection and monitoring of tissue development in engineered tissues. These projects are pursued with collaborators at Tufts, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. The group consists of undergrads, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and senior research scientists.