Title: “Imaging across scales for precision medicine.”
Cancer arises from the multi-step accumulation of genetic and epigenetic alterations. Understanding the interplay between genomics and epigenomics at all stages of malignant transformation is essential for developing personalized strategies to improve cancer detection, prevention, and treatment. Dr. Liu’s group developed label-free quantitative phase imaging and high-throughput super-resolution fluorescence microscopy that allow highly sensitive detection of disrupted chromatin organization early in carcinogenesis. Dr. Liu’s team demonstrated its potential for improving cancer risk stratification for precision cancer prevention. More recently, recognizing that cells do not live in isolation, but function within their microenvironment, there is a critical need to understand cellular and molecular sociology in the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Liu’s team is developing an across-the-scale high-throughput multi-modal imaging platform for high-content phenotyping and single-cell epigenetic profiling in tissue microenvironments. Such across-the-scale imaging approaches will have wide-ranging applications, from understanding cell fate decision when developing resistance to therapy, to drug screening, to predicting the risk of cancer progression.
