Research Assistant Position Avaliable

Posting categor(ies): Engineering/Scientific Research

Work location: Cambridge, MA

The Laser Biomedical Research Center (LBRC) led by Professor Michael Feld at the MIT Spectroscopy Laboratory is searching for a graduate student for an interdisciplinary project involving physics and bioengineering. A full time RA appointment will be offered.

The main theme of the research is the field-based cell tomography. The LBRC has been developing a quantitative phase microscopy for a long time and has recently pioneered in developing a tomographic phase microscopy which can map the 3-D refractive index structure in live cells and tissues (To be published at Nature Methods). The project is now at an early stage and we plan to improve this novel microscopy in both spatial and temporal resolution. In terms of applications, we will study the process of the neoplastic progression in the context of refractive index tomography. For a long term goal, we will combine our microscopy with superresolution microscopy such as stimulated emission depeletion (STED) microscopy to allow for a deep sample imaging with ultrahigh resolution. Students will have rich opportunities for learning and developing a novel tomographic microscopy and at the same time for studying biological cells with new methods.

Students in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, HST/Medical Engineering-Medical Physics, Bioengineering and Physics are invited to apply. The student will work with Prof. Feld and a post-doctor with a background in physics and optics. Knowledge about biological sciences and optics is a plus. The main responsibilities are, but not limited to, hardware and software development for the tomographic microscopy, and cellular and tissue imaging with the developed microscopy. In addition, there is an interesting component in basic optical physics. The instruments function either with Labview programs or Matlab software and the analysis is done using Matlab software.

Interested students should send their resumes with the names of references to Dr. Wonshik Choi (wonshik@mit.edu) as soon as possible. The position is available immediately.