Ji-Xin Cheng, the Moustakas Chair Professor in Photonics and Optoelectronics, has been named the 2022 Boston University Innovator of the Year.
Cheng has a long list of trailblazing achievements, including inventing a way to use blue light and hydrogen peroxide to treat a drug-resistant skin infection called MRSA, finding molecular signatures associated with aggressive cancers for treatment and diagnosis, and creating novel imaging techniques using infrared light to see molecules inside living cells. A BU College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and materials science and engineering, his specialty is bond-selective imaging, which allows scientists to see cells on the molecular level without injecting a visible dye (dye particles are larger than molecules, interfering with their chemical makeup). He recently received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to develop a new dye-free technique, called bond-selective intensity diffraction tomography, which can produce a three-dimensional map of a specific chemical inside cells. This has the potential to help scientists unlock knowledge for treating diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer's.
With over 30 patents and multiple companies, like VibroniX and Pulsethera, aimed at bringing his techniques to the market, Cheng's work has measurable impact-and he is far from finished.
"I have been keeping BU's Technology Development office very busy," Cheng says. Each year, Technology Development, which helps faculty commercialize their research, gathers nominations from the BU community to select the Innovator of the Year award. This year's award was announced at an in-person celebration on May 1 and presented to Cheng by Gloria Waters, BU vice president and associate provost for research.
To learn more about where he gets his inspiration, The Brink sat down with Cheng to talk about his journey as a scientist and inventor.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
