Biography

Dr. Sangyeon “Fred” Cho is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, a CPRIT Rising Star Scholar, and director of the Creative Nanobiophotonics Laboratory. He develops some of the world’s smallest lasers and transforms them into nanolaser particles for highly multiplexed single-cell tracking, sensing, and computing. Before joining Rice, he was an Assistant Professor at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with an affiliated faculty appointment in MIT Health Sciences and Technology. He earned his Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and his B.S. in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from KAIST. His honors include an NIH K25 Career Development Award from the National Cancer Institute, selection as an Optica Ambassador, the MIT Martha L. Gray Prize for Excellence in Research, and recognition as Best Samsung Graduate Scholar.

Research Statement

The Cho Lab develops nanolaser particles as a new class of optical probes for reading, tracking, and computing cellular dynamics. These particles emit ultra-narrowband laser signals, allowing thousands of individual cells to be uniquely barcoded and monitored over time. By overcoming the fundamental spectral crowding of fluorescence, the lab aims to reveal how cellular heterogeneity drives cancer progression, immune responses, cardiac dynamics, neural communication, and therapeutic resistance—opening new paths toward precision diagnosis and therapy.