The Jon Liu Lab

Molecular Biophotonics and Analytics

Professor Jon Liu’s lab develops optical-imaging solutions for improved disease management. In particular, we are developing custom optical-sectioning (3D) microscopy devices and AI analysis strategies for early cancer detection, improved diagnosis/grading of tumors for precision medicine, and real-time surgical guidance. We also collaborate with tumor biologists to provide new mechanistic insights. These projects leverage our multidisciplinary expertise in optical design, machine-learning analysis, spectroscopy, molecular imaging, electromechanical instrumentation, contrast agents, tissue processing, and preclinical/clinical validation.

Jon Liu Lab Research

Our lab is developing non-destructive slide-free 3D pathology methods for clinical decision support and surgical guidance, as well as for biological investigations.

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Lab Team

Meet the dedicated scientists and students driving discovery in our lab—collaborating to advance research and innovation every day.

Meet Our Team

Lab Publications

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Lab Contact Information

Lab News

4/2025 - Our review/perspective article on "Imaging 3D cell cultures with optical microscopy" has been published in Nature Methods! This was a large collaborative effort led by graduate student Huai-Ching Hsieh.
ReadCube link

4/2025 - Dr. Liu has been elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), as described in this press release.

8/2024 - The Molecular Biophotonics Lab has been awarded a contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Heath (ARPA-H) entitled: "Comprehensive multi-resolution histology of surgical margin surfaces with volumetric co-registration." This 5-year project is led by Dr. Liu in collaboration with Alpenglow Biosciences (Nick Reder), Harvard Medical School (Faisal Mahmood), Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Eben Rosenthal and Michael Topf), and UW engineers and clinicians including Sara Javid, Suzy Dintzis, and David Brenes.

Link to UW press release
Link to White House announcement

5/2024 - The Molecular Biophotonics Lab has been awarded an R01 grant from the NIH/NIDDK entitled: "Computational 3D pathology for Barrett's esophagus risk stratification." This is a 5-year collaborative project with Dr. Bill Grady at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and Dr. Faisal Mahmood at Harvard (Brigham and Women's Hospital).”