Dr. Yu, a tenured professor with >20 years of experience in biomedical engineering with specific expertise in bio-photonics, focuses on technology development and clinical translation of innovative optical imaging modalities for noninvasive quantification of blood flow, blood oxygenation, and oxidative metabolism, with the goal of translating these advanced techniques to benefit patients. He has pioneered a camera-based high-density tomographic technique (US Patent #9861319, 2016) for noncontact imaging of brains, tumors, burns, wounds, and reconstructive tissues, and an eye-loupe fluorescence imaging device for identifying tumor margins to guide brain tumor removal (US Patent #0038339, 2018). These innovative systems are currently testing in clinical settings and under commercialization. Dr. Yu also invented a wearable fiber-free optical sensor for continuous monitoring of cerebral hemodynamics and metabolism in freely behaving humans and animals (US Patent #10842422, 2017; US Provisional Patent Application #63/143,667, 2021), and a time-resolved laser speckle contrast brain imager (US Provisional Patent Application #63/080,259, 2020). He leads the use of these innovative multimodal techniques for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring and management of various brain injuries, cancers, and peripheral vascular diseases. Importantly, having many advanced features over other current competitive technologies, these proprietary optical imaging techniques may lead to lasting impact in medical and biological engineering.

Dr. Yu’s research has been continually supported by federal agencies (NIH, NSF, DOD) and national foundations with a total amount of >$30 million (2004-2021). In collaboration with industry, he has secured >$1 million to commercialize his patented technologies. This significant level of funding and support from a diverse range of funding agencies and mechanisms demonstrates the broad appeal of his research program. Dr. Yu has contributed >300 presentations and published >100 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals such as Annals of Neurology, PNAS, APL, ATVB, Optics Letters, NeuroImaging, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, and Cancer Research. His research activities have been highlighted by public media including Biomedical Optics Express Journal (2012), Fibromyalgia Network Journal (2012), Medical Physics Web (2012), Physiological Measurements Journal (2017), and Kentucky Engineering Journal (2020). He is the recipient of DOD Young Investigator Award (2004), Second Place Winner of Young Investigator’s Award in the Society of Vascular Medicine and Biology (2004, 2006), Global Brain Race Winer for Advance Innovation in Fighting Brain Tumors (2019), and Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2015, 2021).