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

Caroline Livan Anyi

Research Fellow

Ph.D., University of Canterbury

Caroline received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 2012 and subsequently completed her master’s degree in Engineering Science in 2014 from the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She then completed her PhD in Physics in the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2019. In her graduate studies, she worked with the Canterbury ring laser group, investigating the advantages of employing different laser wavelengths in large ring laser gyroscopes to monitor Earth rotation. Upon obtaining her doctorate, Caroline worked as a laser engineer before joining Tong Ling Lab. Currently, she is interested in using high-speed interferometric imaging techniques to track nanometer-scale cellular movement.

Jun Xie

Research Fellow

Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University

Jun received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2015 and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in 2020. His Ph.D. research mainly focused on optical coherence tomography (OCT), including aberration mitigation, signal processing and analysis, as well as skin and epithelial studies using OCT. In Tong Ling lab, he is working on quadri-wave lateral shearing interferometry (QWLSI) and its applications in imaging cellular dynamics.

Xinjuan Koh

Research Associate

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.

Kung Pei Wen

Research Officer

B.Eng., Nanyang Technological University

Pei Wen received her Bachelor of Engineering in Bioengineering from Nanyang Technological University in 2024. During her undergraduate final year project, she conducted research in Tong Ling lab, focusing on functional retinal imaging for early diagnosis of retinal degenerative diseases. Specifically, she explored the mechanisms of light-evoked rod photoreceptor dynamics measured by optoretinography. Currently, as a Research Officer in Tong Ling Lab, Pei Wen continues to explore the mechanisms and dynamics of function-associated deformations in the retina. Her research utilizes optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to gain a deeper understanding of retinal function.

PhD Students

Huakun Li

B.Eng., Zhejiang University

Huakun received his bachelor’s degree in Opto-Electronic Information Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2021. During his undergraduate studies, he proposed several high-performance optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) algorithms using multi-feature classification. He won the National Scholarship from the Ministry of Education, China, the “Qizhen Cup” Zhejiang University's top ten new academic achievements as the only undergraduate awardee, and the grand prize in the “Challenge Cup” academic achievement contest among college students in Zhejiang Province, China. Now, in Tong Ling lab, he is focusing on the OCT system design and signal processing for functional neuroimaging in the retina.

Hengze (Steven) You

B.Sc., The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Steven received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering 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 PhD student in Tong Ling lab at Nanyang Technological University, working on imaging neural electrical activity with all-optical approaches.

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.

Hui (Grace) Xie

M.Sc., Nanyang Technological University

Hui received her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2020 from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Then she obtained her master's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2022 from Nanyang Technological University. 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.

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.