2024
December – Congrats to Guzel for being awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship. A wonderful way to wrap up 2024 – way to go, Guzel!!!
December – New funding! Our NIH R01 grant “In vivo imaging of mammalian fertilization” (PI: Irina Larina) has been funded for five years!
November – Irina present a Plenary at the joint conference of Society for Reproductive Biology, the Endocrine Society and the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society in Adelaide, Australia; after that, she had a chance to pat a koala and a kangaroo in a local wildlife park.
October – Tian successfully defended his PhD dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Xia! We are looking forward to following your professional advancements!
September – We are fortunate to recruit Dr. Nanbing (Jade) Li-Villarreal to the lab as an Instructor. Jade is an expert embryologist, developmental biologist, geneticist and molecular biologist, imaging expert, dedicated knowledgeable scientist, and a role-model mom. Welcome to the team!
August – Michaela attended Biomedical Imaging Graduate Summer School (BIGSS), which took place in the beautiful Kylemore Abbey, Ireland. There, Michaela not only learned new biophotonics approaches and climbed the Diamond Hill, but also received 1st place Award for her poster presentation.
July – Kohei receive 1st Place Award at the Society for Studying Reproduction Conference in Dublin, Ireland after giving a stunning poster and oral presentations of his research data.
June - Congrats to Bonnie (Behringer Lab) and Michaela (Larina Lab)! Their equal contribution first-author publication “Structural analysis of the female reptile reproductive system by micro-computed tomography and optical coherence tomography” was featured on the cover of the Imaging Special Issue of Biology of Reproduction journal!
June – New lab Baby! Congratulations to Guzel and her husband Pavel! Welcome to this world, Leo!
May – Congratulations to Guzel for receiving highly prestigious SPIE 2024 Teddi C. Laurin Scholarship.
May – New funding! Congrats to Michaela for receiving NIH F31 individual fellowship grant “Quantitative OCT angiography toward 4D blood flow analysis in embryonic cardiovascular system”!!!
April – Irina presented a plenary talk at the Optica Biophotonics Congress in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, focused on Biophotonics Imaging in Female Reproductive Health.
January – Congrats to Kohei! His first-author publication “In vivo dynamic volumetric imaging of mouse testis and epididymis with optical coherence tomography” was featured on the cover of Biology of Reproduction journal!
2023
December – New funding! Our NIH R01 grant “In vivo investigation of cilia function in the fallopian tube” (PI: Irina Larina) has been funded for five years!
November – December - Tian’s Optica manuscript was noticed by community! It received Top Download, and was featured by BCM From the Labs, Optica Publishing, Photonics Spectra, Optics and Photonics News, Phys.org, Photonics Hot List, and others.
November – Congrats to Tian! His first author manuscript “In vivo volumetric depth-resolved imaging of cilia metachronal wave with dynamic optical coherence tomography” has been published in Optica journal.
June – Irina presented in Hot Topics at the SPIE European Conference on Biomedical Optics, Munich, Germany.
January – We are excited to welcome new graduate student Guzel Musina who joined us through the UH Bioengineering program and will be pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Larina lab!
January – Tian and Michaela presented talks at SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco.
January – Congrats to Kohei! His first-author publication “Optical coherence tomography for dynamic investigation of mammalian reproductive processes” was featured on the cover of Molecular Reproduction and Development journal! Beautiful cover, Kohei!
2022
September – New funding! Our NIH R01 grant “Multimodal Optical Imaging on the Effect of Maternal Polysubstance Exposure on Fetal Brain Microvessel Function” (MPI: Irina Larina) in collaboration with the University of Houston and TAMU has been funded for five years!
September –Our manuscript “Mouse embryo phenotyping with optical coherence tomography” has been published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology journal. Congratulations to Dee as a first author!
August – Irina Larina has been awarded a 2022 Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award!
August – Our collaborative study with Dr. Franco DeMayo lab "Myometrial Progesterone Receptor Determines a Transcription Program for Uterine Remodeling and Contractions During Pregnancy" has been published in PNAS Nexus.
August – Dee Scully has been recognized with $3,000 Dean's Award of Excellence!!!
August – Our video of the beating embryonic heart captured with 4D OCT was selected as Video of the Month and was featured in a story by BCM From The Labs.
July – Congratulations to Dee Scully for receiving the prestigious NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship, which was awarded to study preimplantation embryo transport, and on her first attempt!
July – Our collaborative publication with Dr. Martin Matzuk lab "The testis-specific E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF133 is required for fecundity in mice" has been published in BMC Biology.
June - Congratulations to Tian for receiving 2nd place poster award at the Texas Forum for Reproductive Sciences 2022! So proud of you, Tian!
May - Our manuscript "Dynamic volumetric imaging and cilia beat mapping in the mouse male reproductive tract with optical coherence tomography" has been published in Biomedical Optics Express. Congratulations to Kohei for his first first-author paper in the lab! Congratulations to Tian for his first paper in graduate school!
May – Congrats to Kohei Umezu for receiving $3,000 Dean's Award of Excellence!
May – We are excited to welcome new graduate student Michaela McCown, Quantitative and Computational Biology program.
March 15 – Our star graduate Andrew Lopez has received the prestigious 2022 Lehmann Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Student Award and will be delivering a commencement speech on behalf of the graduate school at the commencement ceremony.
March 8 – Congrats to Kohei Umezu for receiving very competitive 2-year postdoctoral fellowship from Japan to study sperm rheotaxis!
Jan. 22 – Tian Xia, Kohei Umezu, Dee Scully, Zheng-Chen Yao and Irina Larina attended SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco (finally in person!), where all lab members gave oral presentations, and Irina presented at Hot Topics.
Jan. 18 – We are happy to welcome new graduate student Mohammad Salemizadeh (Sam) Parizi. Sam recently came from Iran and joined Larina lab through University of Houston Bioengineering program.
2021
December – Kohei Umezu and Dee Scully gave platform presentations at the Annual Society for the Study of Reproduction Meeting in St. Louis, Mo..
November – Our postdoctoral alumnus Professor Shang Wang received $1.9M NIH MIRA Grant to develop high-resolution, multi-contrast imaging platform. So proud of you, Shang!
Nov. 3 - Irina Larina was elected a fellow of Optica Society/OSA, a major professional organization in optics and photonics with over 100 yrs history.
July 22 – We have a baby in the lab! Kohei Umezu and his wife Narumi welcomed a baby girl into the world.
July 13 – Our study "In vivo dynamic 3D imaging of oocytes and embryos in the mouse oviduct" has been published in Cell Reports journal and highlighted by multiple news outlets!
June 18 – Congrats to Dee Scully for receiving third place platform presentation award at the Texas Forum for Reproductive Sciences!
April 17 – Dee Scully delivered a great talk at the Pathology and Immunology Trainee Symposium and received first place postdoc presentation award!
March 1 – Tian Xia successfully passed his qualifying exam and is now a Ph.D. candidate!
Feb. 23 – Andrew Lopez successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation! Congratulations, Dr. Lopez!
Jan. 21 – We are happy to welcome Dr. Deirdre (Dee) Scully all the way from Ireland joining the lab as a postdoc.
2020
Nov. 23 – Welcome our to new postdoc Dr. Kohei Umezu coming from Japan and joining us in the middle of a pandemic.
Sept. 1 – Congrats to Andrew Lopez for his first-author paper in Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease "Cardiodynamic Imaging in Mouse Embryos with Optical Coherence Tomography."
July 1 – Congrats to Andrew Lopez for his first-author paper in Journal of Biophotonics "Optogenetic cardiac pacing in cultured mouse embryos under imaging guidance."
June 1 – We welcome new QCB graduate student Tian Xia!
Nov. 15 – Andrew Lopez received Deborah K. Martin Award, the highest honor presented by the Graduate School to one student in recognition of outstanding research accomplishments, personal character and intellectual leadership.
2019
July 15 – All the best to Shang Wang as he sets up his own new research lab at the Stevens Institute of Technology as a tenure-track assistant professor!
May 11 – Andrew Lopez received a travel award to Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) meeting in Boston July 26-30 this year!
May 9 – Our research has been highlighted on the Advanced Science News website: Optical Coherence Microscopy Provides New Insight into Infertility.
May 1 – Congrats to Andrew Lopez for his first-author paper and front cover image selection in Biomedical Optics Express "Second harmonic generation microscopy of early embryonic mouse hearts."
April 12 - Congrats to Andrew Lopez for receiving 1st place Outstanding Platform Presentation Award at the Texas Forum for Reproductive Sciences in College Station, Texas.
Jan. 20 – $2.5M NIH R01 grant “In vivo analysis of mammalian fertilization” has been funded; PI: Irina Larina.
Jan. 9 – Congratulations to Emma Moore for her first-author publication in Journal of Biophotonics “Staging mouse preimplantation development in vivo using optical coherence microscopy".
