Liang Gao

Scientists at Janelia work together in multidisciplinary teams to solve challenging biological problems that are difficult to address in other research settings.

Many lab spaces at Janelia feature modular designs and natural light.

Credit: Brad Feinknopf

Occupying 689 wooded acres along the Potomac River, Janelia Farm provides a variety of services and facilities to support its diverse community of scientists and staff—inside and outside the lab.

A view of the Janelia Farm Research Campus at dusk.

Credit: Brad Feinknopf

The Janelia Farm model frees scientists of constraints commonly found in other research environments, providing access to world-class resources and a talented support staff.

Graduate scholar John Tuthill prepares a Drosophila specimen for imaging.

Credit: James Kegley

In addition to our resident scientists and fellows, we offer visiting scientists, graduate, and undergraduate candidates a range of scientific programs.

Graduate scholar Arbora Resulaj (left) and her mentor, Janelia Emeritus Fellow Dmitry Rinberg (right).

Credit: James Kegley

Janelia Farm regularly hosts scientific meetings, ranging from workshops to intensive, specialized conferences. See what's coming up and visit the archive of past events.

Janelia's large auditorium seats 250 people.

Credit: Matt Staley

Janelia provides outstanding employment opportunities, at all levels.

Credit: James Kegley

Many tools developed in Janelia Farm labs are made freely available to outside researchers, while others are taking shape through collaborations with industry, academia, and government.

A virtual arena for the study of flight in insects.

Credit: James Kegley

Janelia’s sense of community comes from a core belief that people of diverse disciplines and backgrounds can accomplish great things when working with a common purpose.

Research specialist Trevor Wardill (left) and group leader Vivek Jayaraman (right).

Credit: James Kegley

Betzig Lab

Associate

Contact Me

Measurement is the key to understanding. Scientific discoveries can always be expected from the development of measurement science and technology. I am interested in the development of novel methods, tools, and instruments in any area where precise measurement is desired, especially the life sciences which are full of challenges and beauties. In Janelia, I am working on Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy for live-cell imaging and presumably for embryology, neurobiology, and many other areas of biology. The goal is to push the spatial and temporal resolution of fluorescence microscopy with minimum photobleaching, phototoxicity, and photodamage.

2005-2009, Ph.D., Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
2000-2003, Master, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
1996-2000, Bachelor, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Collapse

Publications

Expand All

Janelia Publications

Rapid three-dimensional isotropic imaging of living cells using Bessel beam plane illumination.
Nature Methods 2011 T. A. Planchon, L. Gao, D. E. Milkie, M. W. Davidson, J. A. Galbraith, C. G. Galbraith, and E. Betzig Nature Methods, 8:417-23 (2011)
doi:10.1364/AO.50.001792

A key challenge when imaging living cells is how to noninvasively extract the most spatiotemporal information possible. Unlike popular wide-field and confocal methods, plane-illumination microscopy limits excitation to the information-rich vicinity of the focal plane, providing effective optical sectioning and high speed while minimizing out-of-focus background and premature photobleaching. Here we used scanned Bessel beams in conjunction with structured illumination and/or two-photon excitation to create thinner light sheets (<0.5 μm) better suited to three-dimensional (3D) subcellular imaging. As demonstrated by imaging the dynamics of mitochondria, filopodia, membrane ruffles, intracellular vesicles and mitotic chromosomes in live cells, the microscope currently offers 3D isotropic resolution down to ∼0.3 μm, speeds up to nearly 200 image planes per second and the ability to noninvasively acquire hundreds of 3D data volumes from single living cells encompassing tens of thousands of image frames.

Collapse

Axial CID and high pressure resonance CID in a miniature ion trap mass spectrometer using a discontinuous atmospheric pressure interface.
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 2010 L. Gao, G. Li, and G. R. Cooks Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 21:209-14 (2010)
doi:10.1364/AO.50.001792

Axial collision induced dissociation (CID) and high-pressure resonance CID were implemented and compared with normal low-pressure resonance CID in a miniature ion trap mass spectrometer to obtain more complete fragmentation spectra. Axial CID was realized simply by applying a potential to the discontinuous atmospheric pressure interface (DAPI) capillary without performing parent ion isolation before dissociation. High-pressure resonance CID employed a double-introduction pulse scan function, by means of which precursor ions isolated at low-pressure (<10(-3) torr) were dissociated at high-pressure (0.1 torr-1 torr) with higher excitation energy, so that tandem MS of isolated precursor ions was achieved and extensive fragmentation was obtained. A simple peptide (Leu-enkephalin) and dye molecule (rhodamine B) ionized by ESI were used to investigate both methods and compare them with normal low-pressure resonance CID.

Liang Gao

Publications

Rapid three-dimensional isotropic imaging of living cells using Bessel beam plane illumination.Nature Methods 2011 T. A. Planchon, L. Gao, D. E. Milkie, M. W. Davidson, J. A. Galbraith, C. G. Galbraith, and E. Betzig Nature Methods, 8:417-23 (2011)doi:10.1364/AO.50.001792

Collapse

Collapse

Rapid three-dimensional isotropic imaging of living cells using Bessel beam plane illumination.
Nature Methods 2011 T. A. Planchon, L. Gao, D. E. Milkie, M. W. Davidson, J. A. Galbraith, C. G. Galbraith, and E. Betzig Nature Methods, 8:417-23 (2011)
doi:10.1364/AO.50.001792