Lab Members

He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley in 2003. After graduation, he joined the medical device company Nellcor. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from U.T. Austin in 2010, working with Adela Ben-Yakar. After a 1-year Postdoctoral Fellowship with John Frangioni at Harvard Medical School, Nick became an independent M+Vision Fellow at MIT. He left MIT to co-found PlenOptika, which he led as CEO until he joined Hopkins in 2016. Nick has helped start several new companies out of Hopkins, including Kubanda Cryotherapy.
Nick grew up rural Oregon and California, in an unstable, impoverished household. He is a first-generation college student that benefited from Upward Bound and EOP at Cal. If you are a first-generation or low-income student at Hopkins (especially in BME!), he wants to meet you. Hopkins is tough! You can find him at FLI Network events or email him directly.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2017, received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2018, and the Malone Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in 2024.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2024.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2020 and received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2022.

He completed his Masters degree in ECE in the Durr Lab then joined as a Ph.D. BME student in 2021.

He completed his Masters degree in BME in the Durr Lab then joined as a Ph.D. BME student in 2021.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2021 and received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2022.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2022.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2022.

Outside of work, Mantej enjoys hiking, exploring Baltimore’s coffeeshops, doing stand-up comedy, and building wacky electronics projects in his room.
He joined the Durr Lab in 2022.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2025.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2025.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2025.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2022.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2025.

Outside of lab he likes to make artwork such as the big blue JHU sign you may have seen around campus or film photography.
He joined the Durr Lab in 2024.

He joined the Durr Lab in 2023.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2024.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2025.
Openings
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Computational Biophotonics
Updated August 1st, 2025
Tags: optics, microscopy, endoscopy, fluorescence, image-guided surgery, instrumentation, computer vision, machine learning, translational research
Multiple Postdoctoral Fellowships are available in the Durr Lab at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Fellows will research novel optical and computational technologies to address important clinical needs in hematology, global health, surgery, and pathology.
Intravital Microscopy Position: We seek a talented microscopist or optical engineer to explore the area of non-invasive, label-free microscopy for intravital blood imaging and slide-free 3D pathology. The Fellow will design, construct, optimize, and clinically test high-speed phase contrast microscopes. This work will involve creating miniaturized systems, implementing novel optical techniques, hardware and software development, image analysis and human studies research. This position is flexible, and the Fellow will be additionally supported to create new technologies and applications. This position is fully funded by several sources, including the NIH and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Robotic Fluorescence-Guided Surgery Position: We seek a talented biophotonics researcher to develop a novel laparoscope technology to improve tissue visualization during robotic surgery. The Fellow will design, construct, optimize, and test laser endoscopy technologies for 3D fluorescence localization. This work will involve optoelectronics development, novel structured-light optical techniques, imaging system integration, and collaboration with a large team of academics, entrepreneurs, and large industry partners. This position is flexible, and the Fellow will be additionally supported to create new technologies and applications. This position is fully funded by several sources, including the ARPA-H Cancer Moonshot Program.
About Us: Our laboratory is located in the heart of the Johns Hopkins Medical School in East Baltimore. In 2025, we will on move to the new, $400M CMSC North Tower Research Building. Hopkins combines world-leading biomedical engineering and medical programs, providing a fertile environment for impactful translational research. Our interdisciplinary team works side-by-side with healthcare providers. Trainees are encouraged to complete clinical observations and human subjects research. Please see https://durr.jhu.edu/ for more information about our group.
Candidate Requirements: Applicants must have a Ph.D. in a relevant field (engineering, optics, computer science, or physics) and have authored relevant publications. Positions are available immediately.
Application Instructions: Please email your CV; a cover letter describing your background and specific interests in these projects; and the contact information for three references to Dr. Durr: [email protected]. Please use the words [Durr Lab Postdoc 2025] as the subject of your email.
Graduate positions available in Computational Biophotonics
For PhD students, a background in electrical engineering, computer science, physics, optics, or medical imaging is desirable. For external applicants, please apply to Hopkins BME or ECE and indicate my name in your application. For current Hopkins students, please contact me directly.
Alumni

Neha received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Computing and Devices from Georgia Tech. She is pursuing her Master’s in Biomedical Engineering. Currently, she is working on developing a novel imaging system for slide-free pathology detection using UV Surface Excitation. She is interested in novel imaging systems and image analysis for optimized disease detection. In her free time, she enjoys exploring coffee shops in Baltimore, plant-based cooking, and going to concerts
She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.

Naomi received her BEng in Biomedical Engineering from King’s College London. Currently, she is working using phone cameras to detect hand perfusion non-invasively. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, listening to music, and cooking.

Greg’s finished the PhD part of his MD-PhD program in the Durr Lab in April 2022, focusing on non-invasive blood analysis. He completed his B.S. in Optics and B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester in 2014.
He joined the Durr Lab in Fall 2017.

Mason’s PhD in the Durr Lab focused on structured light macro-imaging and machine learning. He received his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he researched on high-intensity focused ultrasound beam mapping.
He joined the Durr Lab in 2017. He completed an internship at Amazon in 2021 and finished his Ph.D. in March 2022. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Durr lab March-June 2022.

Ryan received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 for his work in multi-channel visible-light optical coherence tomography. His current research interests include leveraging optical scattering as an intrinsic contrast source in quantitative imaging.
Faisal received his PhD from the Structural Cellular Biology Unit at OIST Graduate University, Japan. His research interests include signal and image processing, high performance computing, machine learning and biomedical instrumentation. When he’s not playing with code he enjoys photographing everything imaginable!

Richard completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins, and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Computer Science with a focus on Statistical Pattern Recognition, with applications in medicine and healthcare. His interests include exploring semantic segmentation networks and adversarial examples for better medical image understanding. When he travels, he likes to make friends through pop-up dance workshops.

Clarisse completed her M.S.E in Robotics and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation at Johns Hopkins University. She co-developed a cryosurgical system for treating breast cancer in low resource areas. She loves crafting, hiking, and open water swimming.

Bailey completed her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation from Johns Hopkins University. She continued her design project, developing a low-cost system for breast cancer cryotherapy, in the DurrLab as a staff Research Assistant after graduating. In 2020 she founded and became CEO of Kubanda Inc.

Jordan Sweer was a Masters student in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation and Computational Biophotonics. He completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, where he researched 3D-printed optical phantoms and Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy Imaging in the Biomedical Optical Technologies lab. In the Durr Lab, he completed research in using Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging for the characterization of precancerous cells in the gastrointestinal tract.
Rotation Students




Undergraduate Researchers

He joined the Durr Lab in 2023.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.

She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.


After the Durr Lab, Lia was awarded an NSF GRFP and matriculated into MIT/Harvard’s HST Program.








