
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Director, UConn Center for Biomedical and Bioengineering Innovation (CBBI)
guoan.zheng'at'uconn.edu | |
Phone | (860) 486-6973 |
Mailing Address | 260 Glenbrook Road, Unit 3247 Bronwell 217, Storrs, CT 06269-3247 |
Campus | Storrs |
Link | Lab Website |
Google Scholar Link |
Brief Bio
Dr. Guoan Zheng is a Professor at the University of Connecticut. He also serves as the Director of the UConn Center for Biomedical and Bioengineering Innovation (CBBI). His research interests include biomedical instrumentation, computational imaging, ptychography, microscopy, and chip-scale imaging solutions.
Dr. Zheng received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2007, his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Caltech in 2008 and his Ph.D. in 2013, where he was honored with the Caltech Demetriades Thesis Prize. Dr. Zheng is recognized for his pioneering work on Fourier ptychography, which has been adopted worldwide and become a standard tool in microscopy imaging. Notably, this technique also became a chapter in "Introduction to Fourier Optics (4th edition)", the most widely-read textbook on Fourier optics. Dr. Zheng's contributions have resulted in the publication of one book and more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, including those in top-tier journals such as Nature Photonics, Nature Reviews Methods Primers, Nature Reviews Physics, Nature Protocols, eLight, Light: Science & Applications, and PNAS. His research has been cited over 14,000 times, with an h-index of 62 (Google Scholar profile). Dr. Zheng has been listed in the World's Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University since 2020.
Dr. Zheng serves as the faculty advisor for the Optica, SPIE, and Engineering World Health UConn chapters. He also serves as the Senior Editor of PhotoniX, Associate Editors of Biomedical Optics Express, Deputy Editor of Advanced Imaging, Advisory Editor of Biophotonics Discovery, Guest Editors of Optics Express, Applied Optics, IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging, and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, the chair of the Optics Study Group of the IEEE Synthetic Aperture Standards Committee, and the co-chair of the conference, Computational Optical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Sciences, in SPIE Photonics West. He is also an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
Education
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, May 2013
M.S., Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, May 2008
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Chu Kochen Honors College, Zhejiang University, June 2007
Positions
2025 - present, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut
2024 - present, Director, UConn Center for Biomedical and Bioengineering Innovation, University of Connecticut
2020 - 2023, UTC Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut
2019 - 2020, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut
2013 - 2019, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut
- Microscopy and biomedical optics
- Coherent diffraction imaging and ptychography
- Lensless and high-throughput imaging
- Quantitative medical image analysis and machine learning approaches
- Lab on a chip and miniaturized analysis systems
The Smart Imaging Lab pioneers advanced imaging and sensing technologies to address critical measurement challenges across biology, medicine, and metrology. We specialize in developing innovative solutions at the intersection of optics, computation, and instrumentation. Our core research areas encompass: 1) Biomedical instrumentation and diagnostics, 2) Computational imaging and ptychography, 3) Advanced microscopy and endoscopy systems, 4) Chip-scale and miniaturized imaging platforms. Through support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DOE), and strategic industry partnerships, we translate cutting-edge optical science into practical tools that push the boundaries of what can be measured and visualized.
Current projects
Ptychographic endoscopy: Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) utilizes an aircraft-carried antenna to emit electromagnetic pulses and detect the returning echoes. Inspired by SAR, we introduce synthetic aperture ptycho-endoscopy (SAPE) for micro-endoscopic imaging beyond the diffraction limit. SAPE operates by hand-holding a lensless fiber bundle tip to record coherent diffraction patterns from specimens. The fiber cores at the distal tip modulate the diffracted wavefield within a confined area, emulating the ‘airborne antenna’ in SAR. The handheld operation introduces positional shifts to the tip, analogous to the aircraft’s movement. These shifts facilitate the acquisition of a ptychogram and synthesize a large virtual aperture extending beyond the bundle’s physical limit. Our tests demonstrate the ability to resolve a 548-nm linewidth on a resolution target. The achieved space-bandwidth product is ~1.1 million effective pixels, a 36-fold increase compared to the original fiber bundle. The aperture synthesizing process surpasses the diffraction limit set by the probe’s maximum collection angle, opening new opportunities for lensless endoscopy in medical diagnostics and industrial inspection.
Coded ptychography: Coded ptychography is an advanced imaging technique that enhances resolution and imaging throughput by employing a coded surface to encode optical information. This technique combines high-resolution ptychographic imaging with a parallel, coded approach to significantly improve the numerical aperture and imaging speed. The coded surface modulates high-frequency object information into detectable intensity variations. The coded ptychographic platform replaces traditional objective lenses with this engineered surface, enabling super-resolution imaging beyond the diffraction limit. By translating the sample across the engineered surface, the technique captures diffraction patterns that are processed to reconstruct high-resolution images. It can achieve an imaging throughput orders of magnitude higher than conventional systems, acquiring gigapixel images in mere seconds. Our demonstrated throughput has been greater than the fastest whole slide scanner in the world: resolving 308-nm linewidth over a 240-mm2 effective field of view in 15 seconds.
Ptychographic non-line-of-sight imaging: Ptychographic Non-Line-of-Sight (pNLOS) imaging is an innovative technique that enables the visualization of objects hidden from direct view, with applications in fields such as surveillance, remote sensing, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). This method combines the principles of ptychography with non-line-of-sight imaging to achieve depth-resolved visualization of obscured objects. In pNLOS imaging, a laser spot is scanned across a wall to illuminate hidden objects in an obscured region. The reflected wavefields from these objects travel back to the wall and are modulated by the wall’s complex-valued profile. The resulting diffraction patterns are captured by a camera. pNLOS provides a novel approach to overcoming the limitations of traditional imaging methods, offering new possibilities for applications in medical diagnostics, autonomous navigation, and security.
Spatially-coded Fourier ptychography (scFP): scFP is an innovative imaging technique that synergizes Fourier ptychography with spatial-domain coded detection to achieve true quantitative phase imaging with uniform phase transfer characteristics. In this method, a flexible and detachable coded thin film is integrated into the FP setup by attaching it atop the image sensor. This thin film effectively converts object phase information into intensity variations, ensuring a uniform frequency response across the entire synthetic bandwidth. This approach significantly enhances the quality of ptychographic reconstructions and addresses issues such as refractive index underestimation, which are common in conventional FP and related techniques. The inclusion of the coded thin film introduces additional measurement diversity, allowing for more detailed and accurate phase imaging across various applications.
Optical physiology: Optical physiology leverages advanced optical imaging techniques to investigate physiological processes at the cellular and molecular levels, offering unprecedented insights into the dynamics of living organisms. One notable application in this field involves the use of genetically encoded calcium indicators, such as GCaMP6f, which allow for high-throughput functional characterization of neural activity. We aim to employ high-throughput optical recordings from intact dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) in mice to perform colorectal neural encoding. This approach enabled the precise measurement of calcium transients in response to physiological stimuli, providing detailed insights into neural function and sensory encoding.
- BME 4900/4910 “Biomedical Engineering Design I and II” offered every fall and spring semester (team-based project)
- BME 3740 “Introduction to Microscopy and Biophotonics” offered every spring semester
- BME 3520 “Developing Mobile App for Healthcare”, offered every fall semester
Summary:
Google Scholar Profile – Dr. Guoan Zheng's research has been cited over 14,000 times, with an h-index of 62. He is recognized for his pioneering work on Fourier ptychography, which has been widely adopted worldwide and has become a standard tool in microscopy imaging. This technique is also featured as a chapter in Joseph Goodman's classic textbook "Introduction to Fourier Optics (4th edition)". Dr. Zheng's contributions have led to the publication of one book and more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, including those in top-tier journals like Nature Photonics, Nature Reviews Methods Primers, Nature Reviews Physics, eLight, Nature Protocols, Light: Science & Applications, Nature Communications, and PNAS. Dr. Zheng has been listed in the World's Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University since 2020.
Major Publications in the past 5 years:
1. Ruihai Wang, Qianhao Zhao, Lars Loetgering, Frederick Allars, Zhixuan Hong, Timothy J. Pennycook, Roarke Horstmeyer, John Rodenburg, Andrew Maiden, and Guoan Zheng*, "Ptychography at all wavelengths," Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 5, (2025).
2. Ruihai Wang, Qianhao Zhao, Julia Quinn, Liming Yang, Yuhui Zhu, Feifei Huang, Chengfei Guo, Tianbo Wang, Pengming Song, Michael Murphy, Thanh D. Nguyen, Andrew Maiden, Francisco E. Robles, Guoan Zheng*, "Deep-ultraviolet ptychographic pocket-scope (DART): mesoscale lensless molecular imaging with label-free spectroscopic contrast," eLight, 5, (2025).
3. Pengming Song, Ruihai Wang, Lars Loetgering, Jia Liu, Peter Vouras, Yujin Lee, Shaowei Jiang, Bin Feng, Andrew Maiden, Changhuei Yang, Guoan Zheng*, "Ptycho-endoscopy on a lensless ultrathin fiber bundle tip," Light: Science and Applications, 13, 168, (2024).
4. Shaowei Jiang, Pengming Song, Tianbo Wang, Liming Yang, Ruihai Wang, Chengfei Guo, Bin Feng, Andrew Maiden, and Guoan Zheng*, "Spatial and Fourier domain ptychography for high-throughput bio-imaging," Nature Protocols, 18(6), (2023).
5. (Cover paper) Guoan Zheng*, Cheng Shen, Shaowei Jiang, Pengming Song, and Changhuei Yang, "Concept, implementations and applications of Fourier ptychography," Nature Reviews Physics, 3, 207-223 (2021).
6. (Cover paper, ACS Editors' choice) Shaowei Jiang, Chengfei Guo, Tianbo Wang, Jia Liu, Pengming Song, Terrance Zhang, Ruihai Wang, Bin Feng, and Guoan Zheng*, "Blood-coated sensor for high-throughput ptychographic cytometry on a Blu-ray disc," ACS Sensors, 7(4), 1058-1067 (2022).
7. (Selected as Editor's pick) Liming Yang, Ruihai Wang, Qianhao Zhao, Pengming Song, Shaowei Jiang, Tianbo Wang, Xiaopeng Shao, Chengfei Guo, Rishikesh Pandey, and Guoan Zheng*, "Lensless polarimetric coded ptychography for high-resolution, high-throughput gigapxiel birefringence imaging on a chip," Photonics Research, 11(12), 2242-2255 (2023).
8. (Invited) Ruihai Wang, Liming Yang, Yujin Lee, Kevin Sun, Kuangyu Shen, Qianhao Zhao, Tianbo Wang, Xincheng Zhang, Jiayi Liu, Pengming Song, Guoan Zheng*, "Spatially-coded Fourier ptychography flexible and detachable coded thin films for quantitative phase imaging with uniform phase transfer characteristics", Advanced Optical Materials, 2303028, (2024).
9. Chengfei Guo, ShaoweiJiang, Liming Yang, Pengming Song, Azady Pirhanov, Ruihai Wang, Tianbo Wang, Xiaopeng Shao, Qian Wu, Yong Ku Cho, Guoan Zheng*, "Depth-multiplexed ptychographic microscopy for high-throughput imaging of stacked bio-specimens on a chip," Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 224,115049 (2023).
10. (Invited) Tianbo Wang, Shaowei Jiang, Pengming Song, Ruihai Wang, Liming Yang, Terrance Zhang, and Guoan Zheng*, "Optical ptychography for biomedical imaging: recent progress and future directions [Invited]", Biomedical Optics Express, 14(2), 489-532, (2023).
11. (Selected as Editor's pick) Pengming Song, Shaowei Jiang, Tianbo Wang, Chengfei Guo, Ruihai Wang, Terrance Zhang, and Guoan Zheng*, "Synthetic aperture ptychography: coded sensor translation for joint spatial-Fourier bandwidth expansion," Photonics Research, 10(7), 1624-1632 (2022).
12. (Cover paper) Shaowei Jiang, Chengfei Guo, Pengming Song, Tianbo Wang, Ruihai Wang, Terrance Zhang, Qian Wu, Rishikesh Pandey, and Guoan Zheng*, "High-throughput digital pathology via a handheld, multiplexed, and AI-powered ptychographic whole slide scanner," Lab on a Chip, DOI: 10.1039/D2LC00084A (2022). Selected as Lab on a Chip Hot Articles 2022.
13. (Cover paper) Shaowei Jiang, Chengfei Guo, Pengming Song, Niyun Zhou, Zichao Bian, Jiakai Zhu, Ruihai Wang, Pei Dong, Zibang Zhang, Jun Liao, Jianhua Yao, Bin Feng, Michael Murphy, and Guoan Zheng, "Resolution-Enhanced Parallel Coded Ptychography for High-Throughput Optical Imaging," ACS Photonics, 8(11), 3261 (2021).
14. (Cover paper) Pengming Song, Chengfei Guo, Shaowei Jiang, Tianbo Wang, Patrick Hu, Derek Hu, Zibang Zhang, Bin Feng, and Guoan Zheng, "Optofluidic ptychography on a chip," Lab on a Chip, 21(23), 4509-4726 (2021). Selected as Lab on a Chip Hot Articles 2021.
15. Shaowei Jiang, Chengfei Guo, Zichao Bian, Ruihai Wang, Jiakai Zhu, Pengming Song, Patrick Hu, Derek Hu, Zibang Zhang, Kazunori Hoshino, Bin Feng, Guoan Zheng*, "Ptychographic sensor for large-scale lensless microbial monitoring with high spatiotemporal resolution," Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 196(15), 113699 (2022).
- Lensless On-Chip Microscopy Platform Shows Slides in Full View, UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2020/02/lensless-chip-microscopy-platform-shows-slides-full-view/
- Microscope alteration on path to enhancing bioimaging, Laser Focus World: https://www.laserfocusworld.com/bio-life-sciences/article/14275849/microscope-alteration-on-path-to-enhancing-bioimaging
- A hacked Blu-ray player and a drop of blood create high-res images, C&EN: https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/imaging/hacked-Blu-ray-player-drop/100/i14
- A healthy outlook: Microscopy applications for disease diagnosis, Scientist Live: https://www.scientistlive.com/content/healthy-outlook-microscopy-applications-disease-diagnosis
- UConn's Technology Commercialization Services Celebrates a Year of Achievements, UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2023/02/uconns-technology-commercialization-services-celebrates-a-year-of-achievements/
- Ptychography Technique Raises Imaging Throughput, Photonics Spectra: https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Ptychography_Technique_Raises_Imaging_Throughput/a67485
- Blood-cell Lens Enables High-Quality Imaging with Blu-ray Technology, UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2022/05/blood-cell-lens-enables-high-quality-imaging-with-blu-ray-technology/
- New Technology Improves Antibiotic Treatment Decisions, UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2021/11/new-technology-improves-antibiotic-treatment-decisions/
- Tweaks Turn Microscope into Billion-Pixel Imager, Photonics Spectra: https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Tweaks_Turn_Microscope_into_Billion-Pixel_Imager/a54531
- Blood-cell Lens Enables High-Quality Imaging with Blu-ray Technology, Mirage News: https://www.miragenews.com/blood-cell-lens-enables-high-quality-imaging-788801/
- Blu-ray player gathering dust? Turn it into a laser-scanning microscope, ARS Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/blu-ray-player-gathering-dust-turn-it-into-a-laser-scanning-microscope/
- Lensless on-chip microscopy platform shows slides in full view, EurekAlert: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/786879
- Lensless on-chip microscopy platform shows slides in full view, Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2020-02-lensless-on-chip-microscopy-platform-full.html
- Lens-Free Microscopy can Allow More Accurate Diagnoses of Diseases, AZO Optics: https://www.azooptics.com/News.aspx?newsID=24802
- A Fuller View with Lensless On-Chip Microscopy, Optics & Photonics News: https://www.optica-opn.org/home/newsroom/2020/march/a_fuller_view_with_lensless_on_chip_microscopy/
- The Future of Wound Infections, MediScape: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/967901?src=rss&form=fpf
- New Technology Improves Antibiotic Treatment Decisions, EurekAlert: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/934918
- New sensor images microbial growth quickly, can improve antibiotic treatment decisions, Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2021-11-sensor-images-microbial-growth-quickly.html