Tang Lab for Micro- and Biophotonics
Principal Investigator: Dr. Shui-Jing Tang
We are developing novel photonic probes, based on micro-nanoscale high-quality-factor cavities and lasers, for biosensing, spectroscopy, and imaging
Research
Our research focuses on bio-optics, developing novel photonic probes using nano- and micro-scale cavities and lasers for biological sensing, spectroscopy, and microscopy.
Mechanical spectroscopy and microscopy
Vibrational spectroscopy is a widely used technology that identifies an object’s species, composition, and morphology by detecting its natural vibrations (mechanical resonances). However, the natural vibrations of mesoscopic objects—particularly biological cells—have remained undetectable with existing methods. These vibrations occur faintly at megahertz to gigahertz frequencies, demanding levels of sensitivity and spectral resolution beyond the capabilities of current optical and piezoelectric spectroscopic techniques.
We have developed single-cell photoacoustic mechanical spectroscopy based on optical microcavities, which extends vibrational spectroscopy into MHz-GHz spectral window. This technology is further applied for the biomechanical fingerprinting of the species and living states of microorganisms at the single-cell level. This work opens up new avenues to study single-particle mechanical properties in vibrational degrees of freedom and may find applications in single-cell mechanics, photoacoustic sensing and imaging [Nature Photonics 17, 951 (2023), cover paper, selected as "Year in Optics" (2023, Optica, USA), "Top Ten Breakthroughs in Optics in China" (2023)]. This work was featured in the News & Views section on Nature Photonics under the title “Listening to microorganisms with light”.
Besides, we are developing ultrasensitive and broadband ultrasound sensorsbased on optical microcavities. For instance, we have established a dissipative acousto-optic interaction in optical microcavities, achieving a two-order-of-magnitude enhancement in acoustic response compared to traditional dispersive mechanisms, along with broadband response characteristics. This work holds promising potential for applications such as high-sensitivity mechanical spectroscopy and photoacoustic microscopy [PRL 129, 073901 (2022)].
Optical biosensors with high-quality microcavities
Optical microcavities confine light within tiny volumes for long times through multiple internal reflections, creating resonant modes with extremely high sensitivity to environmental perturbations.
We demonstrated an ultrasensitive optofluidic biosensor with interface whispering gallery modes in a microbubble cavity. The interface modes feature both the peak of electromagnetic-field intensity at the sensing surface and high-Q factors even in a small-sized cavity, enabling a detection limit as low as 0.3 pg/cm2. Furthermore, detection of single DNA with 8 kDa molecular weight is realized by the plasmonic-enhanced interface mode [PNAS 119, e2108678119 (2022), "Top TenBreakthroughs in Optics in China" (2022), Research highlight on Science bulletin under the title “Boost the sensitivity of optical sensorswith interface modes”].
We have also developed micro-nanoscale photonic sensing chips, such asintegrated integrated heterodyne interferometer and dense nanowaveguides, enabling the detection of single nanoparticles and single viruses at the nanoscale [Advanced Materials 30, 1800262 (2018); Nature Communications 12, 1973 (2021)].
Intracellular lasers for single-cell tagging, tracking & Imaging
Large-scale single-cell analyses have become increasingly importantgiven the role of cellular heterogeneity in complex biological systems.However, no techniques at present enable optical imaging of uniquely tagged individual cells. Fluorescence-based approaches can distinguish only a small number of distinct cells or cell groups at a time because of spectral crosstalk between conventional fluorophores.
Recently, microlaser particles have emerged as unique optical probesthat emit coherent, wavelength-specific laser light, offering significant potential for massively multiplexed single-cell tagging. We developed laser particles with omnidirectional emission, achieving continuous tracking of individual cells within a population [Light: Science & Applications 10, 23 (2021), cover paper, News & Views section on Light: Science & Applications under the title “Whispering-gallery microlasers for celltagging and barcoding: the prospects for in vivo biosensing”].
Besides, we also developed ultra-high-quality optofluidics biolasers for ultrasensitive molecular detections [Advanced Materials 30, 1804556 (2018)]. We achieved an ultrasensitive immunoassayfor a Parkinson’s disease biomarker, alpha-synuclein (α-syn), with a lower LOD of 0.32 pM in serum, which is three orders of magnitude lower than the α-syn concentration in the serum of Parkinson’s disease patients [Light: Science & Applications 12, 292 (2023)].
Team
We are looking for new Postdocs, graduate students and technicians to join the team (see openings) !
Shui-Jing Tang
Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator
Peking University Boya Young Fellow
National Biomedical Imaging Center (NBIC), College of Future Technology, Peking University
Email: sjtang@pku.edu.cn
Room: Room 304, Buiding 2, NBICBiography
Dr. Shui-Jing Tang is an assistant professor at the National Biomedical Imaging Center (NBIC) of Peking University. She obtained her PhD and completed her postdoctoral training at Peking University. Her research focuses on mechanobiological spectroscopy and microscopy. Her group aims to develop micro-nanoscale optical probes, including optical-microcavity-based ultrasound sensors and intracellular microlasers, for multimodal biomedical imaging, with representative publications in journals such as Nature Photonics, PNAS, PRL, and Nature Communications. Her accomplishments have been recognized and awarded by the "Year in Optics" (Optica, 2023) and the "Top Ten Breakthroughs in Optics in China" (2022, 2023). She has been selected for the Future Female Scientist Program (2025).
Education
2015-2020 Ph.D. School of Physics, Peking University
2018-2019 JointPh.D. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
2011-2015 B.S., School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology
Experience
2024- Assistant Professor, College of Future Technology, Peking University
2022-2024 Research Associate Professor, School of Physics, Peking University
2020-2022 Postdoc, School of Physics, Peking University
Group members
Graduate students
Mo-Xuan Li
PhD student, Peking University (2025- )
Hong-Hai Li
PhD student, Peking University (2025- )
Ying-Da Huang
PhD student (Joint), Peking University (2022-)
E-mail: huang_yingda@stu.pku.edu.cn
Jia-Bin Lin
PhD student, Peking University (2026- )
Ya-Wen Zheng
PhD student, Peking University (2026- )
Xin-Yi Li
PhD student, Peking University (2026- )
Si-Guo Liu
Master's student, Peking University (2026- )
Undergraduate students
Hao-Tian Xing
Undergraduate, Peking University (2022- )
Wen-Kai Gao
Undergraduate, Peking University (2023- )
Yi-Fan Cai
Undergraduate, Peking University (2023- )
Chang-Jun Chen
Undergraduate, Peking University (2024- )
Huai-Xian Yang
Undergraduate, Peking University (2023- )
Research assistants/technician
Lijing Niu
Technician
niu_lijing@pku.edu.cn
Yimiao Zhang
Technician
Shaoxun Wang
Technician
wsx@pku.edu.cn
Publications
Selected publications
- Shui-Jing Tang, Mingjie Zhang, Jialve Sun, Jia-Wei Meng, Xiao Xiong, Qihuang Gong, Dayong Jin, Qi-Fan Yang, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Single-particle photoacoustic vibrational spectroscopy using optical microresonators”, Nature Photonics 17, 951-956 (2023). PDF. Front cover story. Highlighted in News & Views of Nature Photonics.
- Jia-Wei Meng, Shui-Jing Tang*(corresponding author), Jialve Sun, Ke Shen, Changhui Li, Qihuang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao*，“Dissipative Acousto-optic Interactions in Optical Microcavities”, Physical Review Letter 129, 073901 (2022). PDF
- Xiao-Chong Yu#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Wenjing Liu, Yinglun Xu, Qihuang Gong, You-Ling Chen*, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Single-molecule optofluidic microsensor with interface whispering gallery modes”, PNAS 119, e2108678119 (2022). PDF. Highlighed in Science Bulletin
- Ming Jin#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Jin-Hui Chen, Xiao-Chong Yu, Haowen Shu, Yuansheng Tao, Antony K. Chen, Qihuang Gong, Xingjun Wang*, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “1/f-noise-free optical sensing with an integrated heterodyne interferometer”, Nature Communications 12, 1973 (2021). PDF
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Paul H. Dannenberg#, Andreas C. Liapis#, Nicola Martino, Yue Zhuo, Yun-Feng Xiao*, and Seok-Hyun Yun*, “Laser particles with omnidirectional emission for cell tracking”, Light: Science & Applications 10, 23 (2021). PDF. Front cover story. Highlighted in News & Views of Light: Science & Applications, Highlighted in Phys. org
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Shuai Liu#, Xiao-Chong Yu, Qinghai Song*, Qihuang Gong and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “On-chip spiral waveguides for ultrasensitive and rapid detection of nanoscale objects”, Advanced Materials 30, 1800262 (2018). PDF
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Zhihe Liu#, Yanjun Qian, Kebin Shi, Yujie Sun, Changfeng Wu, Qihuang Gong, Yun-Feng Xiao*, “A tunable optofluidic microlaser in a photostable conjugated polymer”, Advanced Materials 30, 1804556 (2018). PDF
2023
- Shui-Jing Tang, Mingjie Zhang, Jialve Sun, Jia-Wei Meng, Xiao Xiong, Qihuang Gong, Dayong Jin, Qi-Fan Yang, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Single-particle photoacoustic vibrational spectroscopy using optical microresonators”, Nature Photonics 17, 951-956 (2023).
- Chaoyang Gong#, Xi Yang#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Qian-Qian Zhang#, Yanqiong Wang, Yi-Ling Liu, Yu-Cheng Chen, Gang-Ding Peng, Xudong Fan, Yun-Feng Xiao*, Yun-Jiang Rao* and Yuan Gong*, "Submonolayer biolasers for ultrasensitive biomarker detection," Light Sci. Appl. 12, 292 (2023).
- Xi Yang, Shui-Jing Tang, Jia-Wei Meng, Pei-Ji Zhang, You-Ling Chen*, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, "Phase-Transition Microcavity Laser," Nano Letter 23, 3048-3053 (2023).
- Jialve Sun, Shui-Jing Tang, Jia-Wei Meng, Changhui Li. “Whispering-gallery optical microprobe for photoacoustic imaging”, Photonics Research 11(11), A65-A71 (2023).
2022
- Jia-Wei Meng, Shui-Jing Tang*(corresponding author), Jialve Sun, Ke Shen, Changhui Li, Qihuang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao*，“Dissipative Acousto-optic Interactions in Optical Microcavities”, Physical Review Letter 129, 073901 (2022).
- Xiao-Chong Yu#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Wenjing Liu, Yinglun Xu, Qihuang Gong, You-Ling Chen*, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Single-molecule optofluidic microsensor with interface whispering gallery modes”, PNAS 119, e2108678119 (2022).
- Jialve Sun, Jia-Wei Meng, Shui-Jing Tang*(corresponding author) and Changhui Li*, “An encapsulated optical microsphere sensor for ultrasound detection and photoacoustic imaging”, SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy 65, 224211 (2022).
- Jia-Wei Meng, Pei-ji Zhang, Shui-Jing Tang*(corresponding author), Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Ultrasound detection using a thermal-assisted microcavity Raman laser”, AAPPS Bulletin 32, 38 (2022).
- Wenjing Liu, Shui-Jing Tang, Yun-Feng Xiao*. “Nonlinear Optical Microcavities Towards Single-Molecule Sensing”. Single Molecule Sensing Beyond Fluorescence, Nanostructure Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. 97-123(2022). (Book Chapter)
2021
- Ming Jin#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Jin-Hui Chen, Xiao-Chong Yu, Haowen Shu, Yuansheng Tao, Antony K. Chen, Qihuang Gong, Xingjun Wang*, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “1/f-noise-free optical sensing with an integrated heterodyne interferometer”, Nature Communications 12, 1973 (2021).
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Paul H. Dannenberg#, Andreas C. Liapis#, Nicola Martino, Yue Zhuo, Yun-Feng Xiao*, and Seok-Hyun Yun*, “Laser particles with omnidirectional emission for cell tracking”, Light: Science & Applications 10, 23 (2021).
- Wenjing Liu#*, You-Ling Chen#, Shui-Jing Tang, Frank Vollmer, Yun-Feng Xiao*. “Nonlinear sensing with whispering-gallery mode microcavities: from label-free detection to spectral fingerprinting”, Nano Letters 21, 1566-1575 (2021). (Front cover paper)
Prior to 2020
- Qi-Tao Cao, Shui-Jing Tang, Hao-Jing Chen, Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Research advances of ultrahigh-Q on-chip microcavity photonics”, Chinese Science Bulletin 65(27), 3028(2020).
- Shui-Jing Tang, Bei-Bei Li and Yun-Feng Xiao*, "Optical sensing with whispering-gallery microcavities", Physics (China) 48(3), 137-147 (2019).
- Siyao Zhang#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Shengfei Feng,* Yun-Feng Xiao,* Wanyin Cui, Xinke Wang, Wenfeng Sun, Jiasheng Ye, Peng Han, Xinping Zhang, Yan Zhang, “High-Q polymer microcavities integrated on multicore fiber facet for vapor sensing”, Advanced Optical Materials 7, 1900602 (2019).
- Chunhua An, Zhihao Xu, Wanfu Shen, Rongjie Zhang, Zhaoyang Sun, Zhaoyang Sun, Zhaoyang Sun, Shuijing Tang, Yun-Feng Xiao, Daihua Zhang, Dong Sun, Xiaodong Hu, Chunguang Hu, Lei Yang*, and Jing Liu*, “The Opposite Anisotropic Piezoresistive Effect of ReS2”, ACS Nano 13, 3310 (2019).
- Jin-hui Chen#, Xiaoqin Shen#, Shui-Jing Tang, Qi-Tao Cao, Qihuang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, "Microcavity nonlinear optics with an organically functionalized surface", Physical Review Letter 123, 173902 (2019). (Front cover paper, Editors' suggestion)
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Shuai Liu#, Xiao-Chong Yu, Qinghai Song*, Qihuang Gong and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “On-chip spiral waveguides for ultrasensitive and rapid detection of nanoscale objects”, Advanced Materials 30, 1800262 (2018).
- Shui-Jing Tang#, Zhihe Liu#, Yanjun Qian, Kebin Shi, Yujie Sun, Changfeng Wu, Qihuang Gong, Yun-Feng Xiao*, “A tunable optofluidic microlaser in a photostable conjugated polymer”, Advanced Materials 30, 1804556 (2018).
- Yinglun Xu#, Shui-Jing Tang#, Xiao-Chong Yu, Daquan Yang, Qi-Huang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Microcavity-enhanced scattering of an arbitrary-shaped nanoparticle: theory and application”, Physical Review A 97(6), 063828 (2018).
- Xiao-Chong Yu, Yanyan Zhi, Shui-Jing Tang, Bei-Bei Li, Qihuang Gong, Cheng-Wei Qiu and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Optically sizing single atmospheric particulates with a 10-nm resolution using a strong evanescent field”, Light: Science & Applications 7, 18003 (2018).
- Shui-Jing Tang, Fei Gao, Da Xu, Yan Li, Qihuang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao*, “Rayleigh scattering in an emitter-nanofiber-coupling system”, Physical Review A 95, 043801 (2017).
- Shuijing Tang, Bo Zhang, Zhi Li, Jixiang Dai, Gaopeng Wang, and Minghong Yang*, “Self-compensated microstructure fiber optic sensor to detect high hydrogen concentration”, Optics Express 23, 22836 (2015).
Contact
Dr. Shui-Jing Tang
National Biomedical Imaging Center
College of Future Technology, Peking University
Huairou Distinct, Beijing 101407, China
E-mail: sjtang@pku.edu.cn
National Biomedical Imaging Center (NBIC) was established in September 2020, which is an important strategic measure of Peking University for the construction of national major science and technology infrastructure and the construction of "double first-class". Relying on big science facilities, it promotes the construction of frontier interdisciplinary disciplines of "imaging omics", promotes the change of scientific research paradigm in the field of life science, and cultivates future innovative talents in "big science" of life science and compound innovative talents in "new engineering" and "new medical science".
