Quang - 2026

Development of point-of-care, biomedical optics technologies to non-invasively characterize tissue hemodynamics

We develop light-based technologies that non-invasively measure tissue hemodynamics, including tissue composition, blood flow, and metabolic rate of oxygen consumption. These technologies can assess hemodynamic status in different disease states including sickle cell disease, monogenic vascular diseases, and pre-eclampsia. Within these patient cohorts, we apply these techniques to identify these disease states based on changes in tissue composition/metabolism or monitor tissue hemodynamic changes in response to therapeutic intervention.

Broadly, students will assist in the testing and development of new optical imaging devices and the characterization of device performance with data acquired in the NIH clinical center. During the summer, the student will:

1. Contribute to the development and testing of in vitro models that simulate physiological processes such as tissue oxygen consumption or blood coagulation
2. Participate in the collection of clinical data from patients with different vascular diseases (i.e., sickle cell disease, CADASIL, pediatric sleep apnea)
3. Perform data analysis to quantify tissue hemodynamic data from various clinical cohorts and compare to clinically obtained biomarkers

Throughout these projects, students will receive mentorship and gain experience with optical instrumentation design, data analysis techniques, and translational clinical research. Students will also interact with both engineers and clinicians as they take various optical technologies from the laboratory to the clinic.

The student should have an interest in biomedical engineering, device development, and clinical translation. Experience with computer programming (MATLAB, Python) is encouraged but not required.

1. Understanding hemodynamic changes in sickle cell disease

   Underpinned by emerging results from our sickle cell disease studies, student will acquire and analyze hemodynamic data from ongoing clinical studies to investigate the potential therapeutic improvements that can be observed from the brain and from skeletal muscle. Students may also manufacture and characterize an in vitro model of blood flow and establish a blood de-oxygenation protocol. They would then implement their model in a study to assess how our clinical measurements may relate to deoxygenation and coagulation of sickled hemoglobin.

2. Wearable optical tracking of cardiovascular health

   In the consumer market, health wearables can track markers such as heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, and oxygenation. Many of these markers are acquired with photo-plethysmography (PPG), a light-based technique that measures the cardiac cycle, producing waveforms that reflect the hemodynamics of each heartbeat. These waveforms have shown promise for identifying microvascular abnormalities and cardiovascular risk factors in other pathologies; however, they are limited due to poor signal-to-noise (SNR).

   A newer technique, known as speckle-plethysmography (SPG), measures blood flow and can be measured simultaneously with PPG. The SPG signal exhibits a markedly higher SNR than PPG, enabling higher-fidelity waveform analysis beyond what has been performed with PPG. This improved signal has also shown promise in estimating markers such as blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

   Students will work with a team of engineers to develop new algorithms to track dynamic health metrics in participants from one of our ongoing clinical studies. The result will be to enable wearables to capture a fuller, more detailed picture of an individual’s health.