The UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge is proud to announce the funding of a diverse range of innovative cancer research projects at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and its pediatric cancer affiliate, CHOC, part of Rady Children’s Health.

Through the unwavering support of dedicated participants, donors and supporters who collectively raised more than $1.5 million in 2025, the Anti-Cancer Challenge has awarded grants to 30 pilot projects and early phase clinical trials, reaching a remarkable milestone of 190 funded projects since 2017. These projects are poised to revolutionize the future of cancer diagnosis, treatment and cures.

Anti-Cancer Challenge funds novel research projects article | UCI Health | Orange County, CA

By registering for the 2026 Anti-Cancer Challenge, you can help fund the next round of innovative cancer research projects.

Track 1: Pilot Projects

A New Strategy to Kill Kinase Inhibitor Resistant Tumors
Investigator
Anand Ganesan, MD, Department of Dermatology, UC Irvine School of Medicine
Small molecule inhibitors that target kinase mutations observed in cancer can rapidly shrink tumors with the relevant mutations, but these tumors can recur rapidly (< 6 months) by activating signaling loops that bypass the effects of kinase inhibitors. Kinase inhibitor resistant tumors are no longer responsive to either kinase inhibitor therapies or immunotherapies, and new approaches are needed to prevent resistance/ treat resistant tumors. UCI-developed drugs that target CDC42 signaling can block signaling loops activated in resistant tumors, identifying a new way to treat kinase inhibitor resistant tumors. We uncover how CDC42 inhibitors developed by our group kill kinase inhibitor resistant tumors and identify CDC42 signaling pathways that are amplified in kinase inhibitor resistant human tumors.

Robotic-Guided Optical Coherence Tomography for Real-Time Evaluation of Peripheral Pulmonary Nodules in Early Lung Cancer Detection
Investigators
Thomas W Waddington, MD, Department of Medicine, UC Irvine School of Medicine
Zhongping Chen, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death, and many patients undergo invasive biopsies to determine whether a lung nodule is cancerous. Current imaging methods can locate nodules but cannot provide detailed structural information before tissue is removed, exposing patients to risks such as bleeding or lung collapse. This project will integrate a high-resolution optical imaging technology with robotic bronchoscopy to allow physicians to visualize microscopic tissue features in real time during evaluation. By improving early and more precise assessment of lung nodules, this approach may reduce unnecessary procedures and enhance the safety and accuracy of lung cancer diagnosis.

Click here or visit https://bit.ly/acc-awardees-2025 to see a full list of UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge 2025 awardees.

Findings open a simpler path to tunable nanoscale optical materials

May 28, 2026 – A team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Maxim Shcherbakov in the UC Irvine Nhu Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has developed a simple way to change how infrared light moves through an ultrathin crystal – using only heat and pressure.

The study, published in ACS Nano, was carried out in collaboration with researchers from UCI’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. It shows that carefully introduced defects inside a crystal can provide a new way to tune its optical behavior without complex fabrication or chemical additives.

The findings point to a new strategy for controlling light in nanomaterials: rather than adding complexity, researchers can make carefully chosen changes within the material itself. The material at the center of the work is alpha-molybdenum trioxide, or α-MoO₃, a layered crystal known for its unusual interaction with infrared light. In this material, light couples with the crystal lattice vibrations, forming hybrid waves called phonon polaritons. These waves can confine infrared energy to spaces far smaller than the wavelength of light itself, making them promising for future technologies, such as compact sensors, thermal imaging systems and nanoscale optical circuits.

A major challenge, however, has been finding practical ways to control these waves. Previous methods often relied on intricate nanofabrication, chemical modification or energetic particle beams, which can damage the material or reduce its performance.

The UCI team found a gentler alternative. They placed thin α-MoO₃ flakes between silicon wafers, applied mild pressure, and heated them to temperatures comparable to those of a household oven. This treatment removed a small number of oxygen atoms from the crystal, leaving behind atomic-scale vacancies. The heating and cooling process also left the material slightly compressed.

“What is exciting about this approach is its simplicity,” said Mashnoon Alam Sakib, a graduate student in Shcherbakov’s group and the study’s first author. “Instead of building complicated nanostructures or introducing foreign elements, we use a straightforward thermal process to reshape the material’s optical behavior from within.”

To observe the effect, the researchers used photo-induced force microscopy, a technique capable of mapping nanoscale light waves that are invisible to ordinary microscopes. They found that the treated crystals carried polariton waves with noticeably altered wavelengths—an average shift of about 13%, reaching up to 24% in some regions.

“These waves are far too small to observe with conventional optics,” said Naveed Hussain, a former postdoctoral researcher in Shcherbakov’s group, now at Toyota Research Institute of North America. “The microscopy allowed us to directly visualize how the heat-and-pressure treatment changed the way infrared energy travels through the crystal.”

Importantly, the material retained much of its performance. Modifying a crystal often causes light-based waves to fade more quickly, but in this case, the engineered polaritons remained relatively long-lived, with only a moderate reduction compared with the untreated material.

“There is usually a trade-off between tuning a material and preserving the quality of the waves it supports,” Shcherbakov said. “Here, we were able to achieve a meaningful change in optical response while keeping the polaritons robust enough to remain useful.”

UCI researchers collaborating on the study include Mariia Stepanova and Kumar Wickramasinghe from the Nhu Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; William Harris, Joshua Bocanegra and Ruqian Wu from the Department of Physics and Astronomy; and Juan Diego Sanchez and Camilo Velez from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Click here or visit https://bit.ly/light-nanomaterials to read the full article on the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering website.

Congratulations to UC Irvine Recipients of the University of California Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards

We are pleased to announce that, out of 100 applicants across the University of California, six UC Irvine faculty members have been selected as recipients of the inaugural Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards! This competitive program recognizes outstanding early career scholars whose innovative research demonstrates exceptional promise and impact.

Please join us in congratulating the following UC Irvine awardees:

Ty Christoff-Tempesta, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Unzip, rebuild, repeat: sustainable and circular plastics alternatives designed to deconstruct and reassemble

Matthew Dean, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Multi-Location Electric Vehicle Charging Coordination: Cost Savings and Emission Reduction Through Aggregator Cooperation

Matthew Griffin, School of Physical Sciences
Targeting peptidoglycan remodeling to combat the threat of multidrug resistant bacteria

Christopher Ignacio Olivares Martinez, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
A new paradigm to discover microorganisms to fully biodegrade PFAS, the “forever chemicals

Christofer Rodelo, School of Social Sciences
So Moved: Dance, Migration, and the Making of Latinx New York

Fei Xia, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Live Biopsy Microscope: Label-Free, Real-Time Disease Diagnosis for Accessible Precision Medicine

Each awardee will receive a $50,000 research award, for a total of $300,000 awarded to UC Irvine faculty through this inaugural cycle. We are proud to see UC Irvine faculty recognized for their creativity, scholarly excellence, and contributions to addressing critical societal challenges!

Please join us in congratulating our colleagues on this well-deserved achievement!

Sincerely,

Gillian R. Hayes
Vice Provost for Academic Personnel

Click here or visit https://bit.ly/uc-early-career-award-xia to read more about the University of California Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards.

UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation, with generous support from Don and Ken Beall, created the annual Innovator Awards to recognize UC Irvine researchers working actively to promote commercialization of university intellectual property, which supports industry growth and moves inventions from the lab to market to benefit humankind.

Early Career Innovator/Emerging Innovation of the Year:

Recognizes distinguished innovators who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their careers, or in the early stages of an innovation breakthrough, through a combined effort in outstanding research and innovation.

This Year’s Awardees:

EMERGING INNOVATION/EARLY CAREER INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR

Liangzhong (Shawn) Xiang, Ph.D.
Professor, Radiological Sciences
UC Irvine School of Medicine
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering

Radiacoustic Imaging (RAI) System for Precision Radiotherapy
Developing a radiacoustic imaging system that provides real-time 3D radiation dose mapping to support more precise and effective radiotherapy treatments.

Click here to learn more on the UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation website.

Biomedical Optical Imaging Scientist to Lead Premier Laser Research Institute

UC Irvine has appointed Dr. Bernard Choi as Director of Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, following a comprehensive national search. The appointment marks a new chapter for one of the world’s leading centers for biomedical photonics, laser medicine, and translational optical research.

A long-standing member of the UC Irvine research community, Dr. Choi has served as the Institute’s Interim Director for the past three years, guiding the team through a period of significant growth and scientific achievement. As Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery, he bridges the School of Medicine and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. His service as Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering further reflects a deep and abiding dedication to the university’s educational mission.

“The next chapter of the Institute is about translation, moving new innovations in optical and photonic technologies out of the laboratory and impacting patient care,” said Dr. Choi. “That vision only succeeds if we are equally committed to the educators and trainees who will carry this field forward.”

Dr. Choi earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. He went on to complete both his M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

At the core of Dr. Choi’s scientific mission is the development of in vivo optical imaging methods for monitoring biological tissues in both normal and diseased states. Dr. Choi’s group is internationally recognized for advancing laser speckle imaging (LSI) to monitor blood flow in real time, alongside complementary modalities such as spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI). These techniques have been applied to intrasurgical monitoring, burn triage, hemorrhage monitoring, wound healing assessment, and cerebral blood flow measurement, establishing the Institute as a leader in translational biophotonics. His laboratory is world-renowned for pioneering work in optical clearing (the use of chemical agents to reduce the scattering properties of biological tissue). This technique enables high-resolution, three-dimensional optical imaging and opens new frontiers in understanding disease progression and response to novel therapies.

To date, Dr. Choi has authored 157 peer-reviewed publications and holds seven patents. He has secured competitive extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other federal sponsors.

Dr. Choi’s active research portfolio reflects a consistent ability to move optical science from the benchtop to the bedside. With NIH support, he is developing a wearable optical patch to continuously monitor tissue perfusion, blood oxygenation, and microvascular function in real time with broad implications for remote patient care and personalized medicine. Supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Dr. Choi is also developing an optical monitoring device to improve real-time assessment of maternal and fetal health during pregnancy and childbirth, addressing a critical gap in modern medicine. This work extends to field-deployable applications in military medicine, emergency response, and pre-hospital care.

Dr. Choi is equally invested in education and workforce development. He is establishing a UC Irvine Core Optical Laboratory Resource (COLR), a hands-on training facility for scientists, engineers, and clinicians in fundamental and applied optics and photonics. As co-PI of the Access to Careers in Engineering and Sciences (ACES) program, he leads an eight-week summer initiative providing undergraduate students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with immersive research experiences and mentorship in biomedical engineering and optical medicine. He also co-directs the NIH-funded Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) program and serves as co-Principal Investigator (co-PI) on the NSF Team Science for Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Social Science Training (BEST) graduate training program. As PI of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)-funded Military Medical Photonics center at the Institute, he collaborates with researchers in translating optical science to military medicine.

As Director, Dr. Choi will oversee the Institute’s research portfolio, operations, educational programs, and strategic direction. He assumes leadership of an institution with a distinguished history of scientific excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world clinical impact.

“For nearly four decades, the Institute has transformed the way light is used to understand, diagnose, and heal,” said Dr. Choi. “My priorities now are clear: accelerate the translation of optical science into patient care, strengthen biophotonics education at every level, and cultivate a strong network of supporters to sustain our life-changing work for decades to come.”