Professor Dr. W R Z

Biography

The Zipfel Lab at Cornell University specializes in developing advanced optical microscopy and spectroscopy bioanalytical instrumentation and analysis methods aimed at enhancing biophysical and biomedical research. The lab collaborates across various laboratories to study cancer biology, nuclear structure, chromatin conformation, enhancer-promoter interactions, and the stoichiometry and function of single molecule protein complexes. Techniques and skills utilized in the lab cover a range of fields including biochemistry, molecular biology, and photophysical analysis methods, alongside electronic circuit design, software development for data analysis, instrument control, and image processing. The team comprises graduate students from diverse fields such as Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Applied & Engineering Physics. The lab's roots trace back to the Developmental Resource Biophysical Optoelectronics (DRBIO) center, which was originally established with funding from the NIH P41 Resource by Watt W. Webb in the 1990s, signifying its long-standing contribution to the field of optical microscopy with innovations such as multiphoton microscopy.

Research Interests