UCL TouchLab

Research at the UCL TouchLab focuses on the development of novel imaging, robotic and computational methods to analyse, explore and manipulate microscale environments.

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Timelapse images showing C.elegans moving on an agarose pad captured using a light field microscope


About 

The UCL TouchLab (room 4.04 of UCL’s Malet Place Engineering Building) is a multidisciplinary research space which supports a team of researchers and students drawn from across the engineering, physical and life sciences. Activities in the lab are primarily focused on the development of optical microscopy, computational image analysis and robotic micromanipulation and automation techniques for applications from fundamental biology to medical diagnostics.

Panoramic image of the UCL TouchLab

Principal research themes 

  • Computational optical microscopy – light field and ptychographic techniques
  • Micromanipulation and micro-robotics
  • Microscope automation
  • Computational image analysis (classical and machine learning approaches)

Facilities 

  • Optical microscopes (upright and inverted)
  • Atomic force microscope
  • Automated upright microscope
  • Wet sample preparation area
  • Optics, optomechanics and electronics for instrument prototyping
  • High performance computing hardware

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People

Mike Shaw – Principal Research Fellow

Vijay Pawar – Senior Research Associate

Christopher Bendkowski – Research Fellow

Laurent Mennillo – Research Fellow

Prof Mandayam A. Srinivasan – Professor of Haptics

Delmiro Fernandez-Reyes – Professor of Biomedical Computing

Petru Manescu – Lecturer in Machine Learning

Lydia Neary-Zajiczek

Bin Fu (CDT in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems)

Youssef Al Jrab (UCL MSc in Robotics and Computation)

Cristobal Morales Perez (UCL MSc in Robotics and Computation)

Tao Xu (CDT in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems)

Remy Claveau (Research Fellow)

Muna Elmi (Research Associate)

Clara Essmann (Research Associate)

David Wong (Research Associate)

Lawal Ibrahim (Robotics and Computing MSc project student)

Sarah Benaissa (CDT in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems, MRes project student)

Collaborators

  • In recent years the TouchLab has worked in a close collaboration with Professor Delmiro Fernandez-Reyes who is leading the development of machine learning methods for malaria diagnosis through the FAST-Mal project.
  • The TouchLab is affiliated with the Wellcome/EPSRC centre for interventional and surgical sciences (WEISS) with several collaborative projects running with other researchers from the centre focused on novel imaging techniques for digital pathology.
  • The TouchLab enjoys close links with UCL’s Autonomous manufacturing lab.