Multi-dimensional imaging
Biology operates across scales. Molecular machines make decisions in milliseconds. Immune systems adapt over decades. Understanding how these processes connect — and how they go wrong in disease — requires seeing them as they unfold, in real time, at every level of detail.
Introducing the laser phase plate
Using the world’s brightest laser of its type, the laser phase plate opens up views of the cell like never before. This will allow scientists to see protein structures and interactions that drive cellular function in both health and disease.
Imaging for a new frontier
Today’s imaging forces tradeoffs: resolution or field of view, speed or depth, one modality or another. We’re building integrated platforms that eliminate these tradeoffs, combining frontier imaging with AI to capture biological systems as they actually work.
Our goal is to make AI-powered, multidimensional imaging a foundational technology for biology — one that lets researchers see how living systems function, forecast what they’ll do next, and ultimately redirect cellular behavior to prevent or cure disease.
Our focus areas:
- Bioforecasting — AI-powered tools that automate the path from imaging to insight, creating the computational foundation for predictive biology and autonomous discovery.
- Dynamic structural cell biology — High-resolution structural snapshots at critical moments, building the molecular-scale foundation for understanding changes in cellular function at a molecular level.
- Cell × State — Scalable technologies to decode how cells translate inputs into outputs, enabling prediction and control of cellular behavior across biological contexts.
- Developmental systems mapping — Comprehensive mapping of vertebrate development, linking cellular dynamics and lineage to multi-omic data.
- Immunological surveillance — Profile immune responses across scales and lifespans, from cellular interactions to organism-wide dynamics through development, aging, and disease.
“With AI, computer tools, mechanistic models, and theory, we’ve got the ability to do in biology what applied physics, theoretical physics, and engineering did so fruitfully a century ago – building and testing large-scale approaches to hard problems in the field. We now have the ability to extract truly meaningful knowledge from a wealth of biological data.” — Biohub President of Imaging Scott Fraser
News
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Science: Laser-boosted microscopes could reveal new drug targets, sharpen views inside cells
Enhanced cryo–electron microscopy promises to bring previously elusive proteins into view
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C&EN: A new, ultrabright laser powers a cryo-EM advance 15 years in the making
Phase contrast enables structures of smaller proteins, could drive in-cell proteomics
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Making the invisible visible
A landmark achievement in microscopy is poised to reveal the molecular machinery of life inside cells, at near-atomic detail.
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Research
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A Crossed Laser Phase Plate for CryoEM
Yue Yu, Bridget Carragher, David Agard, Pavel Olshin, et al. (2026) | bioRxiv
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A multimodal perturbation atlas defines the phenotypic resolution of cellular morphology
Chad Liu, Manuel Leonetti, et al. (2026) | bioRxiv
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Remoscope: a label-free imaging cytometer for malaria diagnostics
Paul M. Lebel, Ilakkiyan Jeyakumar, Michelle W.L. Khoo, et al. (2024) | medRxiv
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Team leaders
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David Agard, Ph.D.
Founding Scientific Director, Imaging
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Carolina Arias, Ph.D.
Research Director, Virus-Host Interactions
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Keir Balla, Ph.D.
Senior Group Leader, Immune Surveillance
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Bridget Carragher, Ph.D.
Founding Technical Director, Imaging
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Anchi Cheng, Ph.D.
Group Leader, CryoET Data Collection
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Josh Elias, Ph.D.
Platform Director, Mass Spectrometry
Investigator program
Our investigator and residency programs support research and collaborations by some of the best minds in science, medicine, engineering and technology.
Meet our investigators
Join us in our mission
We are a collaborative community of scientists, engineers, and AI and machine learning experts from across multiple fields who are passionate about tackling complex challenges and share a unified vision of a world without disease.
Open positions