Kyoohyun Kim, Ph.D.

I am developing microscopy techniques to measure physical parameters for biological samples quantitatively, such as optical diffraction tomography (ODT) and Brillouin microscopy. ODT can provide dry mass and mass density of subcellular compartments in cells and tissues from 3D refractive index distribution, and Brillouin microscopy can measure mechanical properties (longitudinal moduli) of biological specimen from measured interaction between acoustic phonon and photon. We have applied the microscopy techniques for various biological samples, covering individual cells and subcellular organelles to entire organisms like nematodes and zebrafish larvae. We believe that providing actual physical parameters can open the possibility to develop a physical understanding and corresponding quantitative modelling.