The members of the Wellman Center Career Development and Promotions Committee (CDAP), Tayyaba Hasan, Brett Bouma, Bobby Redmond, Gary Tearney and Andy Yun are pleased to announce the promotion of Nicola Martino, PhD to the rank of Instructor at Harvard Medical School effective October 1, 2026. Dr. Martino received his PhD in Physics from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and joined Prof. Seok-Hyun Yun's laboratory at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in 2015. At Wellman, Dr. Martino has played a leading role in the development of laser particles (LPs), miniature semiconductor lasers that can be used as optical tags to uniquely identify and track individual cells. In a study published in Nature Photonics (2019), “Wavelength-encoded laser particles for massively multiplexed cell tagging,” he demonstrated how these particles could enable large-scale cellular identification through their distinct emission wavelengths. More recently, he led the development of combinatorial optical barcoding, in which multiple LPs are combined to generate millions of unique cellular identifiers, as reported in Light: Science & Applications (2025). These optical barcodes can be read repeatedly and non-destructively, allowing individual cells to be identified across multiple measurements and experimental platforms. LP technology has also been applied to high-dimensional flow cytometry, as demonstrated in Nature Biomedical Engineering (2024), and has contributed to the establishment of LASE Innovation Inc., a startup dedicated to its commercialization, where he serves as a scientific consultant. The work has led to two patent applications on laser particle technology. Dr. Martino’s current research focuses on extending optical barcoding to longitudinal single-cell analysis. He is developing a new generation of particles that integrate multiple lasers into a single structure, allowing the barcode to be inherited intact through cell division. This approach enables the tracking of individual cell lineages over time and the linking of measurements from microscopy and flow cytometry with downstream single-cell sequencing. In an ongoing collaboration with Prof. Galit Lahav’s group at Harvard Medical School, he is applying these technologies to investigate how the temporal dynamics of p53 signaling relate to gene expression and treatment resistance in cancer cells. He is now developing a platform for long-term tracking and high-content profiling of individual cells, with an initial focus on the progression of cellular senescence." Please join us in congratulating Nicola on this well-deserved promotion.

Dr Rox Anderson earned the inaugural award in this category from the American Academy of Dermatology and will be recognized at a ceremony in 2027 at their Annual Meeting in San Francisco

The members of the Wellman Center Career Development and Promotions (CDAP) Committee are delighted to announce the promotion of Martin Villiger to the rank of Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Martin is now a Team Associate Professor in Prof. Brett Bouma’s team. Martin received his PhD in Photonics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he previously completed an MSc in Microengineering. His dissertation research focused on microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT) under the joint mentorship of Professors Theo Lasser and Rainer Leitgeb. He joined Prof. Brett Bouma’s group as a postdoctoral fellow in 2010, was promoted to Instructor in 2013, and to Assistant Professor in 2018.

The members of the Wellman Center Career Development and Promotions Committee (CDAP) are delighted to announce the promotion of Dr. Yuxuan Jiang to the rank of Instructor at Harvard Medical School effective October 1, 2026. The CDAP membership is comprised of Tayyaba Hasan (chair), Brett Bouma, Bobby Redmond, Gary Tearney, and Andy Yun. Dr. Jiang completed his PhD study in Mechanics at Tsinghua University in China and joined Dr. Seok-Hyun Yun’s Advanced Optics Laboratory at the MGH Wellman Center for Photomedicine. In the short term, Dr. Jiang has established a research program that integrates sophisticated wave dynamics theory with innovative optical coherence elastography (OCE) to quantitatively interrogate tissue biomechanics. He established a mechanics framework that describes shear wave dynamics in prestressed and viscoelastic biological tissues. Building on this framework, he developed an OCE technique that, for the first time, enables in situ quantification of crystalline lens stress and shear modulus, extending OCE beyond conventional stiffness characterization. The study revealed spatially heterogeneous distributions of capsular tension that are closely linked to lens fluid transport and accommodation. These works were published in International Journal of Engineering Science (2025): “Incremental dynamics of prestressed viscoelastic solids and its applications in shear wave elastography”. Acta Biomaterialia (2025): “Optical coherence elastography measures mechanical tension in the lens and capsule”. Dr. Jiang is also extending OCE to broader applications in tissue biomechanics through a collaboration with Dr. Yanhang Zhang in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. Playing a central role in designing and executing the project, he demonstrated in porcine aortas a stress-dependent modulation of arterial viscoelasticity, suggesting an optimizing function of arterial microstructure during cyclic deformation. This work was published in Communications Physics (2026): “Comprehensive characterization of nonlinear viscoelastic properties of arterial tissues using guided-wave optical coherence elastography”.

This summer, the Wellman Center welcomed Simon Viroulaud, a visiting student from France working in the laboratory of Brett Bouma, PhD. Simon is contributing to cutting-edge optical imaging research aimed at advancing eye care. Beyond the lab, Simon has embraced Boston life through music, Lindy Hop dancing, and exploring the city. We are grateful for his contributions and delighted to have him as part of the Wellman research community this summer.

CURE announced the new Cure Innovation Index, the first data-driven framework to measure how effectively US Biomedical institutions translate scientific discovery into real world healthcare solutions and treatments. https://wewillcure.com

Dr. Lynn Drake received the 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Presidential Citation at the recent AAD Conference in March. This well-deserved honor recognizes Dr. Drake’s outstanding accomplishments and her role among Distinguished Women Presidents who demonstrate exemplary leadership worldwide. Her contributions continue to inspire excellence at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and across the field of dermatology.

The Bullock Postdoctoral Fellowship for research is aimed at understanding and solving important biomedical problems. This multidisciplinary fellowship was created to foster interactions between researchers from diverse fields of study. Her Project title: Application for the Bullock Fellowship Dynamic μOCT as a Window into Hepatocyte Function and Organ Viability