ECE Seminar, Ji-Xin Cheng

Ji-Xin Cheng Purdue University Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering & Department of Chemistry Faculty Host: Jerome Mertz Light refreshments will be served outside of PHO 901 at 9:45 am. Label-free Spectroscopic Imaging: An Emerging Platform for Biology and Medicine Abstract: Current medical imaging tools rely on physical or physiological properties, rather than molecular content of the tissue. Without biomarker information, it remains difficult to differentiate metastatic diseases from the benign forms that can be left without treatment (e.g., in prostate cancer). For chemical content analysis, current strategy relies on tissue homogenization, separation, followed by various in vitro assays. This approach reveals the presence of molecules and their cellular concentrations. However, without spatial and temporal dynamics information, how molecules execute their functions in a living system remains unknown. Lack of such information has slowed the discovery of biomarkers for early diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. Ji-Xin Cheng and his research team is devoted to changing this conventional paradigm of medical imaging and bio-analysis through inventing and developing label-free vibrational spectroscopic imaging technologies (Science 2015, 350: 1054). In this presentation, Cheng will present the most forefront of the molecular spectroscopic imaging field in the technology, science, and clinical translation perspectives. Speaker Bio: Ji-Xin Cheng was born in Jixi, Anhui Province, P. R. China in 1971. He attended University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) from 1989 to 1994. From 1994 to 1998, he carried out his PhD study on bond-selective chemistry under the supervision of Qingshi Zhu at USTC. As a graduate student, he worked as a Research Assistant at Universite Paris-sud (France) on vibrational spectroscopy and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on quantum dynamics theory. After postdoctoral training on ultrafast spectroscopy in Yijing Yan’s group at HKUST, he joined Sunney Xie’s group at Harvard University as a post doc, where he and others developed CARS microscopy that allows high-speed vibrational imaging of cells and tissues. Cheng joined Purdue University in 2003 as Assistant Professor in Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, promoted to Associate Professor in 2009 and Full Professor in 2013. Professor Cheng and his research team has been at the most forefront of the constantly at the most forefront of the rising field of molecular spectroscopic imaging in technology, science, and clinical translation. Cheng is authored in over 180 peer-reviewed articles that have been cited more than 12,000 times, with an h-index of 55 (Google Scholar). He organized 23 national/ international symposia, delivered over 190 invited talks. His is a co-inventor of CARS microscope which is now available through Olympus and Leica. In 2013 He co-founded Vibronix Inc which has the mission of saving lives through vibrational imaging technology. Cheng’s leadership at Purdue and among the broader community has been demonstrated through (1) Leader of a Preeminent Team on label-free spectroscopic imaging at Purdue University College of Engineering; (2) Leader of the Imaging and Diagnosis Group at the newly formed Purdue Institute for Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease; (3) Scientific Director of Label-free Imaging at Purdue University Discovery Park; (4) Initiator and organizer of a biennial Telluride Symposium on laser-based microscopy since 2011; (5) Organizer of an annual international summer school on spectroscopic imaging held at the Purdue Campus since 2011; (6) Lead editor of the first book on coherent Raman scattering microscopy, CRC Press, 2012. Professor Cheng’s achievements have been recently recognized by Craver Award from Coblentz Society (2015), Chang-Jiang Scholar from Chinese Minister of Education (2015), Fellow of American Institute of Medicine and Biological Engineering (2014), Purdue University Faculty Scholar (2012-17), College of Engineering Early Career Research Award (2011), Research Excellence Award from Purdue Center for Cancer Research (2011), Outstanding Young Scientist Award from Chinese National Academy of Sciences (2009). http://www.bu.edu/ece/files/2016/01/Chen-Med-01.jpg