Gabriel Popescu
Gabriel Popescu and his Quantitative Light Imaging Lab Take New Approach to Measuring Cell Dynamics and Structure
Beckman Institute researcher Gabriel Popescu doesn’t just want to know how cells communicate – he wants in on the conversation. To accomplish that, Popescu takes advantage of the properties of light through truly original approaches to measuring cellular structure and dynamics.
Light scattering techniques, interferometry (bringing two waves together), and microscopy are combined in his research to address tissue interactions and make-up, both for basic science research and for applications. When asked about his research, Popescu says his approach is a form of eavesdropping.
“One way,” he said, “to describe our cell imaging work is that we’re trying to listen to cells as opposed to just seeing them, which microscopy has been doing for centuries. Now we are actually accurately measuring their motion at the nanoscale. So that in many ways, with all of these vibrations, is very close to listening to something.”
Popescu’s grand vision for his research line, however, goes beyond just listening to those cells. “What we really want to do in the end is to be cell whisperers, to talk back to them, and understand their language.”
For Popescu and the students and postdocs in his lab, their work to quantify the structure and dynamics of cells and tissues has three components: research that serves both basic and translational purposes and that is highly collaborative.
“We cannot solve the problems by ourselves,” Popescu said. “At the same time we think that the cell biology labs cannot do certain things without our help. This is the trend in the whole biomedical field, to apply understanding from non-living science back to cells, via collaborations across disciplines.”
Popescu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois and a full-time faculty member in the Bioimaging Science and Technology group. His Quantitative Light Imaging (QLI) Laboratory at Beckman works, as stated on their Web site, to develop “novel optical methods based on light scattering, interferometry and microscopy to quantify structure and dynamics of cells and tissues” toward performing “highly interdisciplinary research at the interface between technology development, basic biological studies and clinical applications.”
The group includes students from physics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, with collaborations that touch on topics in fields such as medicine, neuroscience, computer science, and biochemistry. Technology development using their optical methods is central to their efforts, especially for the technology’s potential use in the biomedical field. When asked about their research, Popescu and members of his lab say potential applications of the work are just as important as the science behind those applications.
“We’re not only toolmakers but we also use them to do our own science while we hope to impact other research,” Popescu said. “At this stage we are exploring many of the applications of our technology.
“I usually separate them into structures, saying we are imaging the structures and then the dynamics. Both of these parts of the research are basic; we are trying to understand phenomena in cells, and how light interacts with tissues. But we also have a component that goes all the way to clinical applications. In that we are looking mainly at blood screening and cancer detection.”
Huafeng Ding, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab who works on issues such as Fourier transport and light scattering in cells and tissues, says their work seeks results that are useful in real-world settings.