The Skala lab develops biomedical optical imaging technologies for cancer research, cell therapy, and immunology. Current projects focus on tumor immunology and immunotherapy, cell-level metabolic heterogeneity, and cell-cell interactions. Collaborative projects leverage our unique photonics-based tools for clinical problems, including quality control in T cell and stem cell therapies, designing personalized treatment plans for cancer patients, monitoring diseases in the eye, discovering new therapies for a range of diseases, and many others. Projects are highly diverse and range from translational research to hypothesis-driven questions to algorithm / instrumentation development.

Skala Lab

Melissa Skala

Principal Investigator

Melissa Skala received her B.S. in Physics at Washington State University and her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She then completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University before starting her lab at Vanderbilt University. She is the Carol Skornicka Chair of Biomedical Imaging at the Morgridge Institute for Research and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

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