Yun Bio-Optics Lab: Brillouin microscopy of cells and tissues

Customer Application

Prof. Seok-Hyun Yun's research group uses Zaber's MVR inverted microscope, which was customized to incorporate an optical path for Brillouin microscopy alongside epifluorescence and brightfield imaging. Brillouin microscopy is an optical technique pioneered in Prof. Yun's lab that allows the stiffness of biological materials to be probed with micron-scale spatial resolution, providing insight into biological processes which are modulated by local mechanical changes. Dr. Amira Eltony, lab post-doc and microscope builder, and other researchers are using the new microscope to perform imaging and map the biomechanical properties of cells and tissue sections.

Section of cartilage in a mouse ear measured with Brillouin microscopy. Section of cartilage in a mouse ear measured with brightfield imaging.

About the Yun Bio-Optics Lab

The Yun Bio-Optics Lab is part of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The group develops light-based technologies to enhance our understanding of biomedical processes and to detect and treat diseases. In turn, the group also takes inspiration from biology to create new optical tools such as a 'living laser'.

Visit the lab's website at http://www.intelon.org.