Dr. Pan’s research focuses on developing innovative biophotonic imaging techniques. 3D cross-sectional imaging of biological tissue at close to cellular resolution (e.g., 2-10µm) and at depths of 1-3mm can have significant impacts on noninvasive clinical diagnosis of biological tissue abnormalities (e.g., early cancer detection, tracking engineering tissue growth and repair) and dysfunction (e.g., microischemia, paralysis). In Dr. Pan’s lab, several laser scanning catheter endoscopes, based on optical coherence tomography (OCT), laser Doppler flowmetry, and fluorescence imaging, have been developed and validated in vivo on a wide variety of biological tissues. Encouraging results based on preclinical and clinical studies show that the new-generation laser scanning endoscopes can provide morphological details correlated well with excisional histology, suggesting its potential for optical biopsy or optically guided biopsy to reduced negative biopsies in clinical practice. Current research of Dr. Pan’s lab is focused on subcellular-resolution imaging diagnosis of early cancers, interstitial cystitis, noninvasive longitudinal assessment of engineering tissue growth, functional neuroimaging, optogenetics, and drug addiction.

Dr. Pan and his group publish their findings in PNAS, J. of Clinical Investigation, Molecular Psychiatry, J. of Neuroscience, NeuroImage, Optics Letters, Applied Physics Letters, J. Urology, among others. Their work has been featured in Science Update, PBS NewsHour, Business Insider, Neuroscience News, BioPhotonics International, NIDA Front Page, SBU News, as well as cover pages of many peer-reviewed journals