BRIEF BIOSKETCH
Dr. Ammasi Periasamy received his M.S. in Physics and M.S./Ph.D. in Biomedical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. Postdoctoral training in Biomedical Imaging was at the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Periasamy worked for six years in the video microscopy facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his work resulted in the development of time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) and high-speed camera based fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) for measuring the oscillations in cytosolic and nuclear free calcium in single intact living cells. Dr. Periasamy joined the University of Virginia in 1996 and is currently working as a Full Professor of Biology and Biomedical Engineering. He created an imaging center and developed (or integrated) number of state-of-the-art light microscopy imaging systems. A key area of his research is focused on the use of advanced light microscopy to study/monitor various biological and clinical imaging ranging from a single cell to single molecule in living cells and tissues. Recently, he developed a steady state, confocal, multiphoton, and FLIM based Förster (fluorescence) resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging system for protein localization. The important aspect of the FRET-work is the development of a software package to remove the spectral bleed-through, fluorophore expression level variation and estimate the nanometer (1-10 nm) distance between the protein molecules in living cells and tissue for various light microscopy techniques for any combination of fluorophore pairs (www.circusoft.com). Dr. Periasamy is an internationally recognized expert in advanced microscopy techniques, particularly in the area of molecular imaging in living cells and tissue. He has published over 72 articles in refereed journals and book chapters. Dr. Periasamy has edited two books - Methods in Cellular Imaging (2001), and Molecular Imaging: FRET Microscopy and Spectroscopy (2005), Oxford University Press. Dr. Periasamy is the Chairperson (since 2001) in organizing an annual International conference on Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences through SPIE. He also runs an annual workshop on FRET Microscopy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville during March.
