Dongkyun "DK" Kang

Employment

• Associate Professor: The University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences and Department of Biomedical Engineering, 2023-present
• Assistant Professor: The University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences and Department of Biomedical Engineering, 2017-2023
• Assistant Professor: Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, 2016-2017
• Instructor: Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, 2009-2006
• Research fellow: Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, 2007-2009
• Research fellow: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2006-2007
• Co-Founder, Nano Scope Systems, 2006

Professional Affiliations and Activities

• Lasers in Surgery and Medicine: Editorial board fellow, 2016-present

Awards and Honors

• Harvard-MIT summer institute at MGH, Mentor Award, 2016
• Dermatology Entrepreneurship Conference, Poster Exhibition Winner, 2016

Specific Research Interests

• Low-cost smartphone in vivo microscopy
• High-speed in vivo endomicroscopy
• Ultraminiature endomciroscopy
• Optical imaging for low-resource settings

Research Summary

My research is focused on developing novel optical microscopy technologies and improving patient care using these technologies. My research area includes (1) low-cost smartphone in vivo microscopy, (2) high-speed comprehensive in vivo endomicroscopy, and (3) ultraminiature endomicroscopy.

(1) Low-cost smartphone in vivo microscopy: I am currently leading a NIH-sponsored research project for developing smartphone confocal microscope and diagnosing Kaposi's sarcoma in Uganda with the smartphone confocal microscope. I will further advance the smartphone microscopy technology and address other applications, including diagnosis of cervical and oral cancers in low-resource settings, large-population screening of skin cancers in the US, and aiding science and medical educations.

(2) High-speed comprehensive in vivo endomicroscopy: I have previously developed a high-speed confocal microscopy system and endoscopic imaging catheters and acquired largest in vivo confocal images of human organ reported. At the UA, I plan to further advance the technology by i) increasing the imaging speed by orders of magnitude and ii) incorporating fluorescence imaging modality.

(3) Ultraminiature endomicroscopy: In my previous research, I have developed miniature endoscopic catheters that can visualize internal organs in vivo through a needle-sized device. At the UA, I will develop microscopic imaging catheter with a extremely small diameter and utilize it for guiding cancer diagnosis and treatment.