Academic Report
Spatiotemporal omics: fingerprinting single-cell metabolism in situ in real time without artifacts
Speaker: Dr. Huahua Tu
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Time: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 10:30-11:30 AM
Venue: Room 302, Science and Technology Building, East Campus
Speaker Introduction
Dr. Huahua Tu is a steadfast advocate for the integration of engineering technology and medicine, dedicated to advancing human health and the development of healthcare systems. He has extensive experience in promoting interdisciplinary research and leading international and domestic teams. His long-term research focuses on multi-photon microbial imaging, including the development of related lasers and nanomaterials, cell-level metabolic quantification, precise or intraoperative cancer diagnosis, artificial intelligence image analysis, and related fundamental scientific discoveries. By optimizing incident light parameters, he has solved the challenges of low information dimensionality and high phototoxicity in label-free imaging environments, comprehensively enhancing the capabilities of label-free biological microscopy imaging. He has published numerous high-quality papers in his field, covering physics and chemistry, engineering technology, biology, and medical applications. His core technologies have been published as first/corresponding author in journals including Nature Photonics (2016), Science Advances (2017), Nature Communications (2022, 2018), and Advanced Science (2025), leading to the grant of 3 U.S. patents, the support of 4 U.S. patent applications, and the founding of two startup companies. His research results have been translated into precision instruments through startup companies, which have been deployed in large pharmaceutical companies and research hospitals, driving the application of photonic biotechnology in anti-aging and chronic diseases.
Report Introduction
Optical imaging still lacks effective strategies to maximize molecular information while minimizing damage to fragile living systems. To overcome this challenge, we have developed a label-free imaging method that uses a mixture of 2-, 3-, and 4-photon excitation from a single 60-fs, 1110-nm incident pulse to generate a broad-band (ultraviolet to near-infrared) signal from a variety of living cells/tissues. Under in-line monitoring that maintains conditions below the phototoxicity threshold, we can simultaneously track 6 common metabolic molecules and their interactions in real time, enabling artifact-free biological discoveries through spectral-temporal analysis of single-cell metabolic fingerprints. We discuss the broad applications of this new imaging technology in biology and medicine, as well as the prospects for its industrialization and clinical translation, in the form of "spatiotemporal omics".
Organized by:
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering
College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Yuan Qipeng's Research Group
