Research

Our research interests are focused on polymers and novel optical spectroscopy/imaging techniques. The current research projects are related to fundamental research on polymer physics and molecular imaging. In the first project, we investigate the molecular mechanism of various properties of polymer materials through the direct observation of single polymer chains. The development of novel imaging/spectroscopy methods is also an important part in this study. The second project focuses on the development of in vivo imaging with polymeric materials. Nano-particles of polymers are fabricated as molecular probes for various modalities: fluorescence, magnetic resonance, and photo-acoustic imaging.

Our research facilities are shown here.

1) Development of Optical Imaging Techniques Beyond the Diffraction Limit

Optical microscopy techniques provide various information which cannot be obtain other methods. However, the spatial resolution is limited to the half of the wavelength of light by the diffraction barrier. We develop the novel microscopy techniques which overcome the diffraction limit.

2) Structure and Dynamics of Polymers

3) Molecular Imaging

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Development of polymer nano-particle molecular probe

Photo-acoustic imaging