vasan venugopalan professor

Venugopalan LabPhotons and Transportvvenugop@uci.eduhttp://www.eng.uci.edu/users/vasan-venugopalan

Research Summary: Venugopalan laboratory activities center around the study of photon transport, photo-induced thermal and mechanical transport processes, and their application to non-invasively image, characterize, and/or manipulate biological systems across spatial scales. Our group is highly multi-disciplinary with expertise spanning from applied mathematics, physics, and chemistry on one end to chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials science on the other. Areas of current interest include:1. Mathematical and computational analysis of light transport in

cells and tissues with applications to thick tissue imaging and non-invasive measurement of tissue structure, composition, and function.

2. Development of highly-focused laser microbeam technologies for targeted cellular separation, injection, and mechanical stimulation.

3. Time-resolved microscopy, interferometry, and holography of laser-driven transport processes on nanosecond time-scales.

Research in the Venugopalan lab involves the integration of experiment, modeling, and computational approaches. Potential students are expected to display a high level of motivation, initiative, and interest in contributing to a dynamic, collaborative, inter-disciplinary research environment.

Vasan Venugopalan Professor• B.S. (with honors)

Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (1988)

• S.M., Sc.D., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1990, 1994)

Key Publications:1. “Impact of release dynamics of laser-irradiated polymer

micropallets on the viability of selected adherent cells”, H. Ma, W Mismar, Y Wang, DW Small, M Ras, NL Allbritton, CE Sims, V Venugopalan. Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2012).

2. “Analysis of single Monte Carlo methods for prediction of reflectance from turbid media”, M Martinelli, AR Gardner, DJ Cuccia, CK Hayakawa, J Spanier, V Venugopalan. Optics Express 19(20):19627–19642, (2011).

3. “Amplitude and phase of tightly focused laser beams in turbid media”, CK Hayakawa, V Venugopalan, VV Krishnamachari, EO Potma, Physical Review Letters 103(4):0439039, (2009).

4. “Biophysical response to laser microbeam-induced cell lysis and optoinjection”, Journal of Biophotonics 1(1):24-35, (2008).

5. “Laser-induced mixing in microfluidic channels”, Analytical Chemistry 79(12):4484-4492, (2007).

6. “Laser microbeam induced cell lysis: Time-resolved imaging and analysis of hydrodynamic effects”, Biophysical Journal 91(1):317-329, (2006).

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Focused laser beam propagation in turbid media

Laser based for microfluidic mixing and cell lysis

Nanosecond laser-microbeam cell lysis