We develop novel imaging and sensing tools to tackle the measurement problems in biology, medicine, and metrology. The major techniques that are under development in the laboratory include synthetic aperture ptychography, Fourier ptychographic microscopy, high-throughput lensless coded ptychography, ptychographic sensor, high-throughput neural recording, color-multiplexed single-shot autofocusing, terapixel hyperspectral imaging, imaging through diffusing layer, 3D fluorescence imaging, whole slide imaging system (OpenWSI), multiplexed structured illumination, super-resolution imaging, lab-on-a-chip platforms, and other novel imaging techniques. Since 2013, our research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Connecticut Innovations, UConn Research Excellence Program, and industry partners.
Featured Publications
- (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) (free-to-read version).
- (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).
- (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), 3261-3271 (2021).
- (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, 4549-4556 (2021).
- (Cover paper) Shaowei Jiang, Jiakai Zhu, Pengming Song, Chengfei Guo, Zichao Bian, Ruihai Wang, Yikun Huang, Shiyao Wang, He Zhang, and Guoan Zheng, “Wide-field, high-resolution lensless on-chip microscopy via near-field blind ptychographic modulation“, Lab on a Chip, 20, 1058 – 1065 (2020). (pdf)
- (Editor’s pick) Shaowei Jiang, Chengfei Guo, Patrick Hu, Derek Hu, Pengming Song, Tianbo Wang, Zichao Bian, Zibang Zhang, and Guoan Zheng, “High-throughput lensless whole slide imaging via continuous height-varying modulation of a tilted sensor,” Optics Letters, 46(20), 5212 (2021). (pdf)
- (Editor’s pick) Chengfei Guo, Zichao Bian, Shaowei Jiang, Michael Murphy, Jiakai Zhu, Ruihai Wang, Pengming Song, Xiaopeng Shao, Yongbing Zhang, and Guoan Zheng, “OpenWSI: a low-cost, high-throughput whole slide imaging system via single-frame autofocusing and open-source hardware,” Optics Letters, 45(1), 260 (2020). (pdf)
- (Editor’s pick) He Zhang, Zichao Bian, Shaowei Jiang, Jian Liu, Pengming Song, and Guoan Zheng, “Field-portable quantitative lensless microscopy based on translated speckle illumination and sub-sampled ptychographic phase retrieval,” Optics Letters, 44(8), 1976-1979 (2019). (pdf)
- Guoan Zheng, Roarke Horstmeyer and Changhuei Yang, “Wide-field, high-resolution Fourier ptychographic microscopy,” Nature Photonics, 7, 739–745 (2013). (Featured by Nature) (pdf)
Lab News
2022
- 11/2/2022, Pengming Song has successfully passed the Ph.D. qualify exam and became a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations!!
- 07/05/2022, Our work on synthetic aperture ptychography has been selected as Editor’s pick in Photonics Research.
- 05/12/2022, Our paper, High-throughput digital pathology via a handheld, multiplexed, and AI-powered ptychographic whole slide scanner has been published in Lab on a Chip.
- 05/03/2022, Our work has been highlighted in Microscope alternation on path to enhancing bioimaging by Laser Focus World.
- 04/08/2022, Our paper Blood-coated sensor for high-throughput ptychographic cytometry on a Blu-ray disc has been selected by ACS editors’ choice for free access.
- 04/07/2022, Our cover paper, Blood-coated sensor for high-throughput ptychographic cytometry on a Blu-ray disc has been published in ACS Sensors.
2021
- 11/12/2021, Our paper, “Deep learning-enabled whole slide imaging (DeepWSI): oil-immersion quality using dry objectives, longer depth of field, higher system throughput, and better functionality,” has been published in Optics Express.
- 10/29/2021, Our paper, Quantitative multi-height phase retrieval via a coded image sensor has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 10/20/2021, Our cover paper, Optofluidic ptychography on a chip has been published in Lab on a Chip.
- 10/14/2021, Our cover paper, Resolution-Enhanced Parallel Coded Ptychography for High-Throughput Optical Imaging, has been published in ACS Photonics.
- 10/10/2021, Our paper, High-throughput lensless whole slide imaging via continuous height-varying modulation of a tilted sensor, has been highlighted by Editor’s pick in Optics Letters.
- 10/08/2021, Our paper, Ptychographic sensor for large-scale lensless microbial monitoring with high spatiotemporal resolution, has been published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
- 09/28/2021, Our invited news and views paper, Effective color transfer enables rapid computational microscopy for digital pathology, has been published in Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy.
- 08/16/2021, Zichao Bian has successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Bian!
- 03/11/2021, Our paper, High-throughput functional characterization of visceral afferents by optical recordings from thoracolumbar and lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia, has been published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.
- 02/10/2021, Our cover paper Concept, implementations and applications of Fourier ptychography has been published in Nature Reviews Physics.
2020
- 09/20/2020, Our review paper on autofocusing technologies has been published in Journal of Biophotonics.
- 09/01/2020, Our group has received a new grant from NSF.
- 07/01/2020, Our invited paper, Diffuser modulation enables quantitative lensless microscopy, has been published in Biophotonics.
- 06/25/2020, Our paper, Virtual brightfield and fluorescence staining for Fourier ptychography via unsupervised deep learning, has been published in Optics Letters.
- 05/22/2020, Our paper on Multispectral lensless microscopy has been published in Optics Letters.
- 02/10/2020, Our cover paper, Wide-field, high-resolution lensless on-chip microscopy via near-field blind ptychographic modulation, has been published in Lab on a Chip.
- 01/01/2019, Our OpenWSI: a low-cost, high-throughput whole slide imaging system paper has been highlighted by Editor’s pick in Optics Letters.
2019
- 11/22/2019, Our OpenWSI: a low-cost, high-throughput whole slide imaging system paper has been published in Optics Letters.
- 09/15/2019, Our $5 ptychographic modulation engine invited paper has been published in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics.
- 07/15/2019, Our super-resolution microscopy via ptychographic structured modulation paper has been published in Optics Letters.
- 05/28/2019, Our color multiplexed single-shot autofocusing invited paper has been published in Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery.
- 05/13/2019, Our full-field Fourier ptychography invited paper has been published in APL Photonics.
- 04/12/2019, Our lensless imaging via translated speckle illumination paper has been highlighted by Editor’s pick in Optics Letters.
- 04/01/2019, Our lensless imaging via translated speckle illumination paper has been published in Optics Letters.
- 02/20/2019, Our near-field Fourier ptychography paper has been published in Optics Express.
- 01/06/2019, Our macroscale confocal imaging paper has been published in Optics Letters.
2018
- 11/30/2018, Jun Liao has successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis!
- 08/02/2018, Our terapixel hyperspectral imaging paper has been published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.
- 07/15/2018, Dr. Hoshino and Dr. Zheng received an NSF grant to develop a measurement system for micro/mesoscale elastography.
- 06/16/2018, Our mask-modulated lensless imaging paper has been published in APL Photonics.
- 05/06/2018, Our neural network model for solving phase retrieval paper has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 04/18/2018, Kaikai Guo has successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis! Congrats!
- 03/08/2018, Our Transform-/multi-domain deep learning for whole slide imaging paper has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
2017
- 12/18/2017, Our fluorescence imaging through turbid layer paper has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 10/01/2017, Prof. Feng Pan from Beihang University has joined our group as a visiting scholar.
- 07/31/2017, Our two-LED-based focus survey paper has been published in Optics Letters.
- 06/10/2017, Dr. Zheng received an NSF grant to develop the whole slide imaging platform.
- 05/02/2017, the Fourier ptychography method has been written in Prof. Joseph Goodman’s famous textbook Introduction to Fourier Optics (4th Edition).
- 03/01/2017, Our multichannel microscopy paper is published in the Journal of Biophotonics.
2016
- 12/12/2016, Our fluorescence whole slide imaging paper is listed as the top downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 11/30/2016, Our Angular light modulator paper has been published in Optics Express.
- 10/27/2016, Our fluorescence whole slide imaging paper has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 07/12/2016, Kaikai Guo received the FEI fellowship to develop the Fourier ptychography approach.
- 07/12/2016, Our lensless multilayer single-pixel fluorescence imaging paper is listed as the top downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 06/01/2016, Our lensless multilayer single-pixel fluorescence imaging paper has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 05/18/2016, Our book on Fourier ptychography has been published by IOP Press: Fourier Ptychographic Imaging: a MATLAB Tutorial.
- 04/19/2016, We got a Biopipeline grant from Connecticut Innovation Venture Capital to study and validate the digital pathology system.
- 04/18/2016, Charmi Patel received an Idea Grant (innovative project for undergrad) to develop the robotic arm for the digital pathology system.
- 02/10/2016, Dr. Zheng received an NSF grant to develop the InstantScope platform.
2015
- 12/05/2015, Our invited paper Fourier Ptychography for Brightfield, Phase, Darkfield, Reflective, Multi-slice, and Fluorescence Imaging has been published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.
- 11/12/2015, Our paper Recovering higher dimensional image data using multiplexed structured illumination has been published in Optics Express.
- 09/03/2015, Our paper InstantScope: a low-cost whole slide imaging system with instant focal plane detection is listed as the top downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 08/16/2015, Our paper Resolution doubling with a reduced number of image acquisitions is listed as the top downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 08/04/2015, Our paper InstantScope: a low-cost whole slide imaging system with instant focal plane detection has been published in Biomedical Optics Express. The operation of this platform can be seen in this video.
- 07/29/2015, Our paper Incoherent Fourier ptychographic photography using structured light is listed as the top downloaded paper in Photonics Research.
- 07/17/2015, Our paper Resolution doubling with a reduced number of image acquisitions has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 05/20/2015, Dr. Zheng and Kaikai Guo received a grant from Connecticut Innovation Venture Capital to optimize the gigapixel microscope platform.
- 05/20/2015, Dr. Zheng received an NSF grant to further develop the Fourier ptychography approach for biomedical applications.
- 05/18/2015, Digital eyeglass was featured at Spotlight on Optics.
- 04/27/2015, We have developed a digital eyeglass for improving visual contrast and reducing vision glare LCD-based digital eyeglass for modulating spatial-angular information (Optics Express).
- 02/27/2015, Our paper Optimization of sampling pattern and the design of Fourier ptychographic illuminator has been published in Optics Express.
- 02/05/2015, Our paper Microscopy illumination engineering using a low-cost liquid crystal display is listed as the monthly most downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 01/15/2015, Our paper Microscopy illumination engineering using a low-cost liquid crystal display has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 01/07/2015, News cover from Laser Focus World on our FPscope.
- 01/05/2015, Our paper Incoherent Fourier ptychographic photography using structured light has been published in Photonics Research.
2014
- 11/26/2014, The gigapixel Fourier ptychographic microscopy is listed as one of the three finalists of the prestigious Prism Award.
- 10/11/2014, Our paper FPscope: a field-portable high-resolution microscope using a cellphone lens is listed as the top downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 10/03/2014, Our pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography work is listed as the top downloaded paper in Optics Express.
- 08/29/2014, Our paper FPscope: a field-portable high-resolution microscope using a cellphone lens has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 08/22/2014, We have extended the Fourier ptychography approach for fluorescence microscopy High-resolution fluorescence imaging via pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography in Optics Express.
- 05/29/2014, We have extended the Fourier ptychography approach for 3D imaging and macroscopic imaging beyond the diffraction limit, Aperture-scanning Fourier ptychography for 3D refocusing and super-resolution macroscopic imaging in Optics Express.
- 05/06/2014, Pariksheet Nanda from Andor Technology will join our group, welcome!
- 05/06/2014, Our paper Spectral multiplexing and coherent-state decomposition in Fourier ptychographic imaging has been published in Biomedical Optics Express.
- 03/29/2014, Our invited paper Breakthroughs in Photonics 2013: Fourier ptychographic imaging has been published in IEEE Photonics Journal (the special issue of Breakthrough in Phonics 2013).
- 03/29/2014, Our Fourier ptychography approach is featured by Optics and Photonics News as the cover paper.
- 02/28/2014, Our paper Sparsely sampled Fourier ptychography has been published in Optics Express.
- 01/13/2014, Our paper 0.5 gigapixel microscopy using a flatbed scanner is listed as a top-downloaded paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
2013
- 12/23/2013, Dr. Zheng will give an invited featured presentation, Pushing the resolution limit with a simple LED array, at the Second Annual Digital Pathology Conference (Feb 10-12, 2014, San Francisco, CA).
- 12/02/2013, Our first paper Adaptive system correction for robust Fourier ptychographic imaging, has been published in Optics Express.
- 11/01/2013, Our Fourier ptychography work has been featured in Nature!


MAJOR SPONSORS
National Science Foundation
National Institutes of Health
Connecticut Innovations
UCONN Research Excellence Program
Industry partners