Robert Lees

Rob joined Octopus in 2022 as a link scientist responsible for multiphoton and lightsheet microscopy. He provides scientific and technical expertise and support to academic and industrial partners for all aspects of their microscopy experiments, from design to acquisition and analysis. Rob is a biochemist by training (MSci from University of Birmingham), transitioning to cellular biology (PhD from University of Bristol) and then systems neuroscience (Postdoc at Oxford University) while gaining skills in various microscopy techniques, particularly in vivo multiphoton microscopy.

His current interests are in live lightsheet imaging of 3D biological models such as organoids and spheroids, but he has taken his hand to imaging small developing organisms, plants and cell bioprinting. He is also interested in taking advantage of fixed cleared tissue imaging of whole tissues ranging from human biopsies, mouse organs and bones, human skin models, and cellularised biomaterials. Rob is also interested in utilising multiphoton microscopy for deep imaging in thick samples, or specific utilisation of properties such as plasmon resonance (gold nanoparticles in cells) and second harmonic generation (collagen in biomaterials and tissue).