Team – Zhao Biophotonics Lab

Principal Investigator

Yongxin (Leon) Zhao, Ph.D.

Eberly Family Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Ph.D., University of Alberta
Postdoctoral appointment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CV

Postdoctoral Fellows

Aleksandra Klimas, Ph.D.

Ph.D., George Washington University

Graduate Students

Emma DiBernardo

Ph.D. Student, UPitt-CMU MBSB program

Emma is a Ph.D. student in the University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon University Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology (MBSB) Graduate Program and joined the Zhao Lab in 2020. Her current work focuses on engineering fluorescent proteins not only for expansion microscopy but also for enhanced photostability in all imaging contexts by employing directed evolution. If Emma could only eat 1 food for the rest of her life, it would be pasta with red sauce. When she’s not creating the toughest and brightest FPs, she enjoys making the aforementioned red sauce, cooking Italian food for friends, baking, quilting, and going to strange art films showings.

Yuhong (James) Wang

Ph.D. Student, UPitt-CMU MBSB program

James is a Ph.D. student in the University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon University Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology (MBSB) Graduate Program and joined the Zhao Lab in 2019. Outside of lab, he enjoys glass blowing, calligraphy, and walking into the ocean. If you ever see James at a restaurant, his most likely order is steak.

Quang Long (Jason) Nguyen

Ph.D. Student, Department of Biological Sciences

Jason is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at CMU and joined the Zhao Lab in 2022. His current work uses Magnify to process clinical tumor samples from patients with various stages of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). With the versatility and compatibility of MAGNIFY with different sample formats, this approach can be extended to solve and improve diagnostics of other types of cancer, which will be helpful in aiding physicians to provide better treatments in clinical settings. In addition, the extra information gained from this process can be used to further understand the prognosis and progression of cancer in each patient.

Ha Vo

Ph.D. Student, Department of Biological Sciences

Ha is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at CMU and joined the Zhao Lab in 2024. Ha utilizes Magnify on a wide range of human clinical samples and is developing a multiplexed expansion microscopy platform for diagnostic pathology. With a background in cancer biology and translational research, she is passionate about building tools for high-resolution visualization of the immune landscape in renal pathology, and immune interactions with the gut microbiome in colorectal cancer. Her work seeks to expand ExM applications across various multifactorial medical challenges. When Ha’s not staring at the microscope in the dark, she enjoys running, gardening, baking, and hanging out with friends. She would be happy if she could only eat bun bo Hue for the rest of her life.

Rong Xu

Ph.D. Student, Department of Biological Sciences

Rong is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at CMU and joined the Zhao Lab in 2024. Currently, Rong is developing next-generation Magnify tools for brightfield imaging, with the goal of enabling high-throughput, high-resolution detection for routine applications in general pathology. She is passionate about vision science and uses Magnify to investigate neurological defects, for example Alzheimer’s disease that affect the retina. Rong may not have a favorite dish, but her spice tolerance is outstanding. She’d be happy with anything above 500k on the Scoville scale. In her free time, she likes to check out different restaurants with friends, dance, and doodle.

Research Associate

Laurence Gao

Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences

Laurence joined the lab in 2024 shortly after earning a bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he majored in Biology and Fine Arts, with an additional major in Russian studies. With a focus on clinical applications, he studies how physical parameters such as diffusion, porosity, hydrogel mechanics, and optical homogeneity shape the biological information recoverable from complex tissues, ranging from muscle-invasive bladder cancer biopsies to whole organs and organisms. When Laurence is not in lab, he obsesses over his cats, blows glass at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and scours the internet for potential additions to his wardrobe. If he could eat one food for the rest of his life, it would be dumplings.