Tearney Laboratory

Overview

Dr. Tearney, is the Remondi Family Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair, Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, an Affiliated Faculty member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and maintains his lab at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Prof. Tearney received his MD magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), College of American Pathologists (CAP), National Academy of Engineering (NAI), Optical Society of America (OSA), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Dr. Tearney’s research interests are focused on the development and clinical validation of non-invasive, high-resolution optical imaging methods for human disease diagnosis. Dr. Tearney’s lab was the first to perform human imaging in the coronary arteries and gastrointestinal tract in vivo with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which provides cross-sectional images of tissue architectural microstructure at a resolution of 10 µm. He has also conducted many of the seminal studies validating OCT and is considered an expert on OCT image interpretation. Recently, Dr. Tearney’s lab has invented a next generation OCT technology, termed µOCT, which has a resolution of 1 µm and is capable of imaging cells and subcellular structures in the body.

Dr. Tearney has also developed several other technologies, including a confocal endomicroscope capable of imaging whole organs at the cellular level, swallowable microscopes that traverse and image the entire gastrointestinal tract, the world’s smallest endoscope, a microscope capable of imaging at the nanoscale, and novel spectroscopy and multimodality chemical/molecular imaging techniques. Dr. Tearney is co-editor of The Handbook of Optical Coherence Tomography and has written over 250 peer-reviewed publications, including papers that have been highlighted on the covers of Science, Nature Medicine, Circulation, Gastroenterology, and Journal of American College of Cardiology. Dr. Tearney also has over 100 granted US patents, resulting in several commercial medical devices. In addition, He was recently named one of the nation’s Top Translational Researchers by Nature Biotechnology and his capsule device was highlighted as one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies in 2019.

Dr. Tearney’s work extends beyond his laboratory at MGH, many of his technologies are being produced commercially: He is the vice-chair of the Research Advisory Board for the Marcus Institute for Aging Research, member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Chair of the College of American Pathologists In Vivo Microscopy Committee, and he has founded and co-chairs the International Working Group on Intravascular OCT Standardization and Validation, a group that is dedicated to establishing standards to ensure the widespread adoption of this imaging technology. He also is the co-director of the MGB Center for COVID Innovation that develops and implements novel technologies to help patients and caregivers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Selected Publications

Yin B, Piao Z, Nishimiya K, Hyun C, Gardecki JA, Mauskapf A, Jaffer FA, Tearney GJ. 3D cellular-resolution imaging in arteries using few-mode interferometry. Nature: Light Sci Appl. 2019;8:104.

Leung HM, Birket SE, Hyun C, Ford TN, Cui D, Solomon GM, Shei RJ, Adewale AT, Lenzie AR, Fernandez-Petty CM, Zheng H, Palermo JH, Cho DY, Woodworth BA, Yonker LM, Hurley BP, Rowe SM, Tearney GJ. Intranasal micro-optical coherence tomography imaging for cystic fibrosis studies. Sci Transl Med. 2019;11(504).

Yin B, Hyun C, Gardecki JA, Tearney GJ. Extended depth of focus for coherence- based cellular imaging. Optica. 2017; 4:959-965.

Tethered capsule endomicroscopy enables less invasive imaging of gastrointestinal tract microstructure. Gora MJ, Sauk JS, Carruth RW, Gallagher KA, Suter MJ, Nishioka NS, Kava LE, Rosenberg M, Bouma BE, Tearney GJ. Nat Med. 2013 Feb;19(2):238-40.

Intra-arterial catheter for simultaneous microstructural and molecular imaging in vivo. Yoo H, Kim JW, Shishkov M, Namati E, Morse T, Shubochkin R, McCarthy JR, Ntziachristos V, Bouma BE, Jaffer FA, Tearney GJ. Nat Med. 2011 Nov 6;17(12):1680-4.