Research

Research in Cheng Group (Updated in Dec 2015)

Conventionally, bioanalysis has relied on tissue homogenization, separation, followed by various assays. These approaches tell the presence of molecules and their concentrations. Nevertheless, without spatial and temporal dynamics information, how molecules execute their functions in a living system remains unknown. Moreover, important target molecules with small quantities are often buried in the large background of dominant species in these in vitro assays.

Professor Cheng and his research team are devoted to changing this conventional diagram of bio-analysis through leading the field of vibrational spectroscopy based chemical imaging. (For details of this rising field, see Cheng’s Review Article in Science 2015, 350: 1054.