Hyung Ham Kim

Abstract Reliable assessment of 3D stem cell spheroid function and fate is crucial in regenerative medicine and cell therapy, where gene and protein analyses and mechanical probing are employed. However, current methods are often invasive and struggle with heterogeneity, frequently damaging spheroid integrity, which drives a need for non-destructive, label-free techniques to assess individual spheroids directly in their culture environment.

Abstract Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) has been widely used in biomedical studies to provide high-resolution 3D anatomical, functional, and molecular images of living subjects. While handheld PAM systems have been proposed to extend its applicability, it has proved challenging to achieve a compact device that combines fast imaging with high spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio.

Abstract Multimodal optical and ultrasound imaging (USI) provides complementary diagnostic insights. However, because conventional USI uses opaque ultrasound (US) transducers, integrating these two modalities results in a bulky and complicated handheld probe in which neither modality performs efficiently.