Piyush Raj

Welcome to my website!

My name is Piyush Raj. I am currently a Research Fellow at the Wellman Centre for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with a joint appointment at the Broad Insititute of MIT and Harvard, working in Prof. Andy Yun's lab.

I obtained my Ph.D from Johns Hopkins Univeristy under the mentorship of Prof. Ishan Barman, focusing on quantitative phase imaging and Raman spectroscopy. Before that, I obtained my M. Tech in Nanoscience and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, where I was awarded the Institute Medal for academic excellence. I completed my B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, followed by a year-long stint as a workshop supervisor at L&T Heavy Engineering.

You can find a summary of my research areas below, and my list of technical expertise here.

Email - praj3@mgh.harvard.edu; rajpiyush@broadinstitute.org

Research Areas

Bioimage analysis

My research in the field of bioimage analysis is focused on analyzing Quantitative phase microscopy images in 2D, 3D, and 4D. Current development in phase imaging systems allows rapid acquisition of tomographic images; however, the pipeline to analyze these images is less developed than in other fields like fluorescence images. I am working towards making phase imaging and imaging analysis, in general, accessible to a larger group of people by implementing novel algorithms which are lightweight and easy to use.

Relevant publications:

P. Raj et al. - CellSNAP [biorxiv link]
SK Paidi*, P. Raj* et al. - Biosensors and Bioelectronics 190, 113403 [link]
P. Anantha*, Z. Liu*, P Raj et al. - Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Volume 235, 1 September 2023, 115388 [link]
SK Paidi*, V Shah*, P. Raj et al. - Biosensors and Bioelectronics 175, 112863 [link]
S. Tanwar, ..., P. Raj et al. - Nano Lett. 2023, 23, 10, 4602–4608 [link]
D. Paria, ..., P. Raj et al. - Advanced Functional Materials 31 (30), 2101638 [link]

Raman spectroscopy in biology

This part of my research intertwines the vibrant world of Raman spectroscopy with the limitless possibility offered by machine learning. With a focus on cellular and tissue analysis, my work unveils the hidden intricacies of biological systems through the lens of spectral data. I have successfully performed cellular study, tissue and tumor characterization, and mouse model study with Raman spectroscopy. I have also successfully implemented an algorithm for TSH detection and SARS-CoV2 with SERS.

Relevant publications:

Y. Yuan*, P. Raj* et al. - Angewandte Chemie 133 (8), 3969-3973 [Cover article] [Hot Paper] [link]
P Zheng*, P Raj* et al.- Small 2023 [link]
P. Zheng*, P. Raj* et al. - Small 2022, 18, 2204541 [link]
P.Raj et al, - SORS on cartilage [biorxiv link]
S Tanwar*, B Ghaemi*, P. Raj et al - Adv. Sci.2023, 2304164 [link]
P. Anantha*, Z. Liu*, P. Raj et al. - Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Volume 235, 1 September 2023, 115388 [link]
P. Zheng, ..., P. Raj et al. - Small 18 (18), 2200090 [link]
D Paria*, KS Kwok*, P. Raj et al - Nano letters 22 (9), 3620-3627 [link]
SK Paidi*, JR Troncoso*, P. Raj et al. - Cancer Research 81 (22), 5745-5755 [link]
MS Wrobel, ... , P. Raj et al. - Biosensors and Bioelectronics 180, 113115 [link]

Optical Instrumentation

My interest is also in building optical instrumentation systems for spectroscopy and imaging purposes. I have recently built a spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) system to non-destructively look into cartilage health and correlated that with mechanical measurement parameters of cartilage. During my masters, I developed Bayesian optimization framework to automatically generate the highest number of frequency comb possible in a silicon modulator for a given configuration of hardware by controlling multiple instruments.

Relevant publications:

P.Raj et al, - SORS on cartilage [biorxiv link]
KP Nagarjun*, P Raj* et al. - Optics Express 28 (9), 13032-13042 [link]

* First co-author

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