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).
Lees, R.M., Bianco, I.H., Campbell, R.A.A. et al. Standardized measurements for monitoring and comparing multiphoton microscope systems. Nat Protoc (2025).
Lees, R.M., Pichler, B. and Packer, A.M. Contribution of optical resolution to the spatial precision of two-photon optogenetic photostimulation in vivo. Neurophotonics (2024) Vol 11 (1)
Lees R.M., Johnson, J.D. and Ashby M.C. Presynaptic Boutons That Contain Mitochondria Are More Stable. Front. Synaptic Neurosci. (2020) Vol 11
Lees, R.M., Peddie, C.J., Collinson, L.M., Ashby, M.C. and Verkade, P. Correlative two-photon and serial block face scanning electron microscopy in neuronal tissue using 3D near-infrared branding maps. Methods in Cell Biology (2017) Vol 140, pp245-276