Dr Puxiang Lai Associate Professor
Exploits light and sound to probe and treat biological tissues

Location ST410
Phone +852 3400 8900
mail puxiang.lai@polyu.edu.hk
stream Curriculum Vitae

Open Platform for University Scholars
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Biography Dr. Puxiang Lai received his Bachelor from Tsinghua University in 2002, Master from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005, and PhD from Boston University in 2011. After that, he joined Dr. Lihong Wang’s lab in Washington University in St. Louis as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. In September 2015, he joined Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor.
Dr. Lai’s research focuses on the synergy of light and sound as well as its applications in biomedicine, such as wavefront shaping, photoacoustic imaging, acousto-optic imaging, and computational optical imaging. His research has fueled more than 40 top journal publications, such as Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, and Advanced Sciences. He has two USA/world patents, and has been invited to give more than 50 seminars or invited talks. Since 2015, his research has been continuously supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC), Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (STIC), with allocated budget of more than 14 million Hong Kong dollars.
He was awarded the 12th Chinese National 1000 Talent Plan Youth Scholar, the 2016-2017 Hong Kong RGC Early Career Award, the 2018 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award, and the 2019 PolyU K.C. Wong Belt and Road Visiting Fellowship Award. As a recognition for his contribution to the field, currently Puxiang serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Visual Computing for Industry, Biomedicine, and Art (VCIBA), Guest Editor of Journal of Innovative Optics in Health and Science (JIOHS), Committee Member of the Biomedical Optics Panel in the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, and Member of the Medical Instrument Judging Panel in the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission.




Research Interests
Optical wavefront shaping
Photoacoustic/optoacoustic imaging
Adaptive optics
Optical microscopy
Digital holography
Artificial intelligence



Academic and Professional Experiences Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Biophotonics Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China, Sep 2015 – current
Associate Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China, Jan 2017 – Current
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, USA , Jul 2010 – Aug 2015
Graduate Research Assistant (Ph.D.), Physical Acoustics Lab, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, USA, Sep 2005 – Jun 2010
Graduate Research Assistant (M.S.) , Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, Sep 2002 – Jul 2005




Research Outputs

Selected publications (10 selected journal papers in the past 5 years)
[ ] represents equal contribution,^#represents corresponding authorship.
[P. Lai, L. Wang, J. W. Tay], and L. V. Wang, "Photoacoustically guided wavefront shaping (PAWS) for enhanced optical focusing in scattering media,"Nature Photonics9, 126-132 (2015).
[Y. Liu,P. Lai], C. Ma, X. Xu, A. Grabar, and L. V. Wang, "Optical focusing deep inside dynamic scattering media with near-infrared time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) light,"Nature Communications6:5904 (2015).
Y. Liu, H. Liu, H. Yan, Y. Liu, J. Zhang, W. Shan,P. Lai, H. Li, L. Ren, Z. Li, and L. Nie, "Aggregation-Induced Absorption Enhancement for Deep Near-Infrared II Photoacoustic Imaging of Brain Gliomas In Vivo,"Advanced Science6, 1801615 (2019).
Huanhao Li, Fei Cao, Yingying Zhou, Zhipeng Yu, andPuxiang Lai^#, "Interferometry-free noncontact photoacoustic detection method based on speckle correlation change
Single-shot linear dichroism optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy
Edge enhancement through scattering media enabled by optical wavefront shaping
Photoacoustic imaging of microenvironmental changes in facial cupping therapy
Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy with ultrafast dual-wavelength excitation
Clothing Spiny Nanoprobes against the Mononuclear Phagocyte System Clearancein vivo: Photoacoustic Diagnosis and Photothermal Treatment of Early Stage Liver Cancer with Erythrocyte Membrane-Camouflaged Gold Nanostars
Focusing light through scattering media by reinforced hybrid algorithms
false" data-toggle="collapse" href="#!" role="button">Competitive External Research Grants
"Deep-Tissue Optical Focusing towards in vivo by Fast Photoacoustically guided Wavefront Shaping (PAWS)
Noninvasive high-resolution optical focusing in deep living biological tissue and its applications
Development and application of small-animal whole-body high-speed photoacoustic molecular imaging instrument
Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging of Osteoarthritic Pain - A Proof-of-Concept Study
Multi-mode fiber-based fast wavefront shaping and its pilot applications in biomedical imaging and sensing
Development of Aggregation Induced Emission-Boosted Adaptive Optical Microscopy for Enhanced Molecular Imaging
Multiscale photoacoustic molecular imaging for early diagnosis of brain glioma
Optical focusing through multimode fibers based on reflection mode transmission matrix and its perspectives in biomedicine
Optical Fiber Biomedical Sensing and Imaging Technologies(光纤生物医学传感及成像技术)
本土創新創業團隊項目), No. 2019BT02X105, China, January 2020 (Co-PI; budget 10% allocated to me)
"Forward-looking intravascular photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging technology for the assessment and guidance of cardiovascular chronic total occlusion intervention
Multiscale photoacoustic imaging for small animal myocardial microcirculation evaluation
Fiber-based small animal head-mounted photoacoustic microscopy", 2021-2023, 1,969,150 HKD, Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), Innovation and Technology Fund - Guangdong-Hong Kong Technology Cooperation Funding Scheme (ITF-TCFS), No. GHP/044/19GD, October 2020 (PI)








Esteem Measures Selected awards The Faculty Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Aug 2020
K.C. Wong Belt and Road Visiting Fellowship Scheme, Dec 2019
Ten Thousand People’s Scheme, Jan 2019
Research Grant Achievement Award, Mar 2018
Hong Kong RGC Early Career Award, Oct 2016
12^thNational 1000 Talent Plan Youth Scholar, Jan 2016