Odette Cancer Program

Executive Assistant: Lorelie Lacson
Phone: 416-480-6100 ext: 64293
Email: Lorelie.Lacson@sunnybrook.ca

Education:

• B.Sc., 2012, Nanjing University, Nanjing, P.R. China
• Research Scholar, 2016, Stanford University, USA
• Ph.D., 2017, University of Toronto, Canada
• NSERC Postdoc Fellow, 2022, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Scientist, Physical Sciences Platform, Odette Cancer and Hurvitz Brain Sciences Programs, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto

Research Foci:

• Advanced Optics, AI, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases
• Raman microscopy, stimulated Raman scattering imaging, Raman histology
• Machine learning aided cell and tissue imaging
• Subcellular metabolomics
• Tumor microenvironment
• Neurodegenerative disease models

Research Summary:

Dr. Qian’s lab focuses on research in both basic and translational sciences. The Qian Lab is developing advanced nonlinear vibrational imaging methods, combining physics/chemistry and machine learning tools, aiming to achieve higher throughput for tissue imaging, and to enable fast, precision cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Dr. Qian developed new imaging methods that enabled scalable label-free super-resolution interrogations of protein-rich biological structures, offering new tools for cancer imaging and brain imaging.

Dr. Qian’s research interests also include single cell metabolite imaging. As part of his postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech, Dr. Qian worked with pioneers in cancer therapy and single cell metabolomics, demonstrated the promise of Raman spectro-microscopy for mapping metabolites in single cells, and discovered new druggable metabolic susceptibilities. The Qian Lab at Sunnybrook is developing the next-generation imaging methods for single cell metabolomics studies.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Super-resolution label-free volumetric vibrational imaging. Qian C, Miao K, Lin LE, Chen X, Du J, Wei L. Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 15;12(1):3648. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23951-x.
2. High spatial-resolution imaging of label-free in vivo protein aggregates by VISTA. Lin LE, Miao K, Qian C, Wei L. Analyst. 2021 Jun 28;146(13):4135-4145. doi: 10.1039/d1an00060h.
3. Label-free Super-resolution Imaging Enabled by Vibrational Imaging of Swelled Tissue and Analysis. Miao K, Lin LE, Qian C, Wei L. J Vis Exp. 2022 May 17;(183):10.3791/63824. doi: 10.3791/63824.
4. Raman-guided subcellular pharmaco-metabolomics for metastatic melanoma cells. Du J, Su Y, Qian C, Yuan D, Miao K, Lee D, Ng AHC, Wijker RS, Ribas A, Levine RD, Heath JR, Wei L. Nat Commun. 2020 Sep 24;11(1):4830. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18376-x.
5. Toward photoswitchable electronic pre-resonance stimulated Raman probes. Lee D, Qian C, Wang H, Li L, Miao K, Du J, Shcherbakova DM, Verkhusha VV, Wang LV, Wei L. J Chem Phys. 2021 Apr 7;154(13):135102. doi: 10.1063/5.0043791.

Related Links:

• Lab website
• U of T Profile