When Dr. Aydogan Ozcan joined the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering faculty in 2007, some mobile phones on the market did not have cameras. However, Dr. Ozcan saw the potential for the devices—which were being released with more advanced features every year—to play an important role in medical diagnostics. With this vision, he founded a research lab that worked on 3D-printed optical interfaces that could be atktached to a phone camera and function as a microscope or biomedical sensor with the help of computation and algorithms. Over the years, Dr. Ozcan’s lab advanced these portable, mobile phone-based computational microscopes and sensors to see viruses and even image individual DNA molecules. These mobile and cost-effective tools became a revolutionary diagnostic platform that could make advanced measurements in resource-limited settings. Establishing over 30 different international collaborations, Dr. Ozcan was able to distribute these mobile technologies for testing in many different countries such as Ivory Coast, Ghana, Brazil, Lebanon, Turkey, Sweden, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Canada, among others. International collaborators were also invited to UCLA for training on the devices so they could teach others after returning to their home countries.

Dr. Ozcan’s lab has worked on several other projects that have contributed to the advancement of diagnostic knowledge worldwide. One project was adopted by the South Korean Youth Agency as part of an agreement with the South Korean government. Dr. Ozcan’s lab created a platform with educational games about malaria and malaria diagnostics, which was integrated into some high school curricula in South Korea. Approximately 1,500 students had the opportunity to play these games and learn to identify infected cells with the program’s interactive format, which also incorporated the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The project allowed individuals outside the medical field to gain an understanding of diagnostics and global health challenges, expanding this knowledge beyond just professionals.

The lab continues to innovate to improve global public health. Dr. Ozcan leads projects with help from postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and a large undergraduate research team. Over the years, over 300 undergraduate students across different majors have been involved with the lab, participating in the hands-on training and building of mobile systems for imaging and sensing. Dr. Ozcan considers his undergraduate team the “next generation of interdisciplinary researchers and innovators” that will transform healthcare technologies for populations around the world.