People | Tong Ling Lab

Principal Investigator

Tong Ling

tong.ling [at] ntu.edu.sg

Nanyang Assistant Professor (NRF Fellow)

School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Adjunct Junior Principal Investigator

Singapore Eye Research Institute

Singapore National Eye Centre

Research Staff

Lizhi Chen

Research Fellow

Ph.D., Tsinghua University

Lizhi received his Bachelor's degree in Opto-Electronics Information Science and Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2018. He then pursued his Ph.D. degree in Optical Engineering at the Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, which he completed in 2023. Following his doctoral studies, Lizhi worked as an assistant researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences before joining Tong Ling Lab. His research interests encompass all aspects of holography, and he is currently working on holographic optical coherence tomography for human retinal imaging.

Hengze (Steven) You

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University

Steven received his PhD from Nanyang Technological University in 2026 and Bachelor of Science degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2021. He has written one book chapter “Treating spinal cord injury with implanted spinal cord stimulators” in Neuroscience of Spinal Cord Injury. He received the HKSAR Government Scholarship and the Outstanding Student Award from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, PolyU in 2020. He is now studying as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Tong Ling lab at Nanyang Technological University, working on imaging neural electrical activity with all-optical approaches.

Hui (Grace) Xie

Research Associate

Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University

Hui received her PhD from Nanyang Technological University in 2026 and bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2020. Her research interest is mainly related to signal processing using machine learning or classical methods. She is now working on quantitative phase imaging and optical diffraction tomography of mammalian neurons.

Xinjuan Koh

Research Associate / Lab Manager

M.Sc., Georgetown University

Xinjuan received her bachelor's degree in Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology in 2019 from Arizona State University, USA. She then graduated with a master's degree in Biotechnology in 2020 from Georgetown University, USA. Her previous research experiences mainly focused on applying recombinant DNA technologies to accelerate the discovery and development of novel vaccines. She is now a Research Associate in Tong Ling's lab, and she is working on the development of mammalian cell cultures for optical neuroimaging that examines the dynamics of cellular deformation during the action potential.

Davide Nanni

Research Associate

M.Sc., University of Bologna

Davide earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Bologna in 2020 and 2023, respectively. During his undergraduate studies, he was awarded the European Scholarship from the European Commission, Erasmus+, and conducted research on surface growth theory at the University of Galway, Ireland. After returning to Italy, he completed his thesis titled "Bone metastatic growth as a phase transition," introducing a 1D model to describe tumors as a phase transition. In Tong Ling's lab, he focuses on imaging the functional activity of retinal cells in response to visual stimuli using phase-resolved OCT.

Zhuqin Xu

Research Associate

M.Sc., Nanyang Technological University

Zhuqin earned her bachelor's degree in Opto-Electronics Information Science from Zhejiang University in 2024. She then pursued a master's degree in Signal Processing and Machine Learning at Nanyang Technological University. Her experience includes deep learning for non-line-of-sight imaging, spatiotemporal data modeling, machine unlearning, and algorithm development for laser processing systems. In Tong Ling Lab, Zhuqin also received training in primary neuronal culture and tissue dissection. She is interested in applying machine learning and computational imaging techniques to biomedical imaging.

PhD Students

Liaoliao Wei

M.Sc., Imperial College London

Liaoliao obtained her master's degree in Optics and Photonics from Imperial College London in 2021 and her bachelor's degree in Opto-Electric Information Science and Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2020. During her master's studies, she worked with a team of scientists led by Professor Chris Phillips and Dr. Hemmel Amrania to design a new cancer diagnostic technology called Digistain that uses infrared laser for breast cancer cell detection. She received the Gladys Locke Prize from Imperial College London for the best performance in Applied Optics in 2021. Now, she is working as a PhD student in Tong Ling Lab, and she is interested in image processing and wavefront engineering in biomedical imaging.

Gan Hanqiang Louis

B.Sc., University of Bradford

Louis received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Bradford in 2018. He then proceeded to work in a cardio genomics lab at the National University of Singapore (NUS). During his time at NUS, his work revolved around clinical research involving DNA, RNA, and molecular biomarkers, as well as genetic engineering techniques using Adeno-associated viruses. In Tong Ling lab, he is now working on quantitative phase imaging and its applications in biomedicine.

Mengmeng Zhang

M.Sc., Beijing Institute of Technology

Mengmeng received her bachelor’s degree in Opto-Electric Information Science and Engineering in 2021 and her master’s degree in Optical Engineering in 2024, both from the Beijing Institute of Technology. During her master’s studies, she focused on laser interference lithography and surface plasmon resonance. Now, as a PhD student in Tong Ling’s lab, Mengmeng is working on label-free imaging of biological cells and macromolecules.

Zonghao Liu

M.Sc., Tsinghua University

Zonghao earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, and Automation from Tongji University in 2021. He subsequently completed his master’s degree in Data Science and Information Technology at Tsinghua University in 2024. Zonghao’s research primarily explores the application of machine learning in optical coherence tomography (OCT), with a special focus on optoretinography (ORG). His current work involves modeling the phototransduction cascade in photoreceptors and its mechanical consequence for optoretinography.

Wai Sin Yin

B.Eng., Nanyang Technological University

Sin Yin received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in 2025. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on multiple projects involving biomedical data and artificial intelligence. Now, she is working as a PhD student in Tong Ling Lab, where her research focuses on analyzing optoretinography data using machine learning.