Dr. Yun received his Ph.D. degree in physics (optics) from KAIST, Korea, in 1997. He was a Chevening Scholar and visiting student at Optoelectronics Research Centre in University of Southampton, UK, in 1996. His PhD thesis research has led to a $68M-funded startup company in San Jose, CA, which was later acquired by LG-Nortel. In 1999-2003, he worked there as a founding member and manager. In 2003, moving his career to biomedical optics, he joined the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Harvard and affiliated faculty member at MIT (Health Sciences and Technology).

Dr. Yun's primary research interest is developing novel light-based technologies for biomedical applications. Dr. Yun wrote more than 50 U.S. patents, many of which have been licensed, commercialized, and FDA approved. In particular, Dr. Yun has co-invented Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). Besides problem- solving, Dr. Yun's research also embraces curiosity-driven projects without specific applications in mind. An example is biological cell lasers, which received accolades from the general public as well as the scientific community (see the Figure above).

Activities:
2010-  Director, MGH-HST Summer Program (6-12 students a year)
2010-  Director, MGH-Tokyo Summer Program (3-4 students a year)
2010-  Director, MGH-KAIST Summer Program (6-8 students a year)
2010   Organizer and Chair, Symposium, CLEO
2010-  Associate Editor, Biomedical Microdevices, SpringerLink
2011-  Overseas Coordinator, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan
2011    Scientific Founder, Intelon Optics, Inc., Cambridge, MA
2011    CNN Live Newsroom, Big Innovation, Live TV Interview
2011    Nature Top 10 Readers’ Choice
2011    Physics World Top Ten Breakthroughs in 2011
2012   Finalist, Boston‘s Invented Here Award, Museum of Science
2012   NIH Study Section, SBIR/STTR Imaging
2012-  NIH Study Section, Neuroscience and Ophthalmic Imaging Technology
2012   Hot Topics, Photonics West, Plenary Talk
2013   European Optical Society Meeting on Optofluidics, Plenary Talk
2013   Inventor of the first living laser, Guinness Book 2013

1. Fan X, Yun SH (2014), Optofluidic bio-laser: principles and applications to sensing. Nature Methods (Invited review)
2. Choi, M, Choi JW, Kim S, Nizamoglu S, Hahn SK, Yun SH (2013), Light-guiding hydrogels for cell-based sensing and optogenetic synthesis in vivo. Nature Photonics 7 (In print)
3. Nizamoglu S, Gather MC, Yun SH (2013), All-biomaterial laser using vitamin and biopolymers. Advanced Materials 25 (In print)
4. Jung K, Kim P, Leuschner F, Gorbatov R, Kim JK, Ueno T, Nahrendorf M, Yun SH (2013). Endoscopic time-lapse imaging of immune cells in infarcted mouse hearts. Circulation Research 112, 891-899.
5. Kim JK, Lee WM, Kim P, Choi M, Jung K, Kim S, Yun SH (2012). Fabrication and operation of GRIN probes for in vivo fluorescence cellular imaging of internal organs in small animals. Nature Protocols 7, 1456-1469.
6. Gather MC, Yun SH (2011). Single cell biological lasers. Nature Photonics 5, 406-410.
7. Kim P, Chung E, Yamashita H, Hung KE, Mizoguchi A, Kucherlapati R, Fukumura D, Jain RK, Yun SH (2010). In vivo wide-area cellular imaging by side-view endomicroscopy. Nature Methods 16, 303-305.
8. Fan Z, Spencer J, Yan Lu Y, Pitsillides CM, Singh G, Kim P, Yun SH, Strom TB, Lin CP, Koulmanda M (2010). In vivo tracking of color-coded effector, natural and induced regulatory T cells in allograft response. Nature Medicine 16, 718-722.
9. Scarcelli G, Yun SH (2008). Confocal Brillouin microscopy for three-dimensional mechanical imaging. Nature Photonics 2, 39-43.
10. Yun SH, Tearney GJ, Vakoc BJ, Shishkov M, Oh WY, Desjardins AE, Suter MJ, Chan RC, Evans JA, Jang IK, Nishioka NS, de Boer JF, Bouma BE (2006). Comprehensive volumetric optical microscopy in vivo. Nature Medicine 12, 1429-1433.

Group Website

For more information, please visit the Bio-Optics Lab website:  
http://www.intelon.org/