Jaepyeong “Richard” Cha graduated in 2016 with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently an assistant professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and he serves as research faculty at the Children’s National Medical Center.
What made you choose Johns Hopkins?
I liked the academic flexibility at JHU and focus on research. Biomedical imaging at JHU is one of the best research fields. During the PhD program, my initial goal was to work and communicate with clinicians and scientists to solve the medical problems at hospital environments. JHU includes the world’s best hospitals, and it fits well for the research.
Do you have any memories that stand out from the classroom or lab?
We worked closely with JHMI and Children’s National Medical Center. Most of my research involved live animal experiments in the lab. Experiments with live animals require lots of preparation and validations, which take longer times to finish the study. While I was involved in the study of live mice brain imaging, President Barack Obama announced the Brain Initiative project and our research got lots of public attention. I was very lucky to publish our collaborative work with Dr. Bergles’ lab in Neuron in 2014 and to be awarded one of the prestigious pre-doctoral fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
What research were you involved in at JHU?
I was developing novel fiber optic endoscopes that can aid in increasing our understanding of the relationships between cellular activity within the brain and complex animal behaviors. Using this technique we observed, for the first time, physiologically relevant activation of astrocytes during behaviorally relevant tasks and in the natural setting. My research was also aimed at translating the techniques for use in clinical practice, such as suture placement guidance for intestinal anastomosis.
More generally: how did you get interested in electrical and computer engineering?
My dream was to make medical instruments to help diagnose and cure patients. At the beginning of my senior year [at Seoul National University], I had an opportunity to work with ophthalmologists. I participated in a year-long project to develop a portable diagnosis aid system for optic diseases using a digital ophthalmoscope. From this experience, I had a chance to fabricate and develop a novel optic & electronic system that convinced me to dedicate my career to studying medical instrumentation-related research. I was convinced that these small medical inventions would eventually contribute to the benefits of medical technologies. I believed attaining my PhD in electrical and computer engineering at JHU would give me the best chance to make my dream come true.
Are there any emerging technologies that you think show great promise?
Studying intact biological systems with both a global perspective and local precision is a key challenge for biological sciences, especially for brain science. Over the last few decades, enormous efforts have been channeled towards determining regional connectivity, i.e., the wiring patterns in the brain, but these efforts have been impeded by the fact that high-resolution, brain-wide interpretation is hard to achieve. The approach using a spatially multiplexed fiber-optics allows in vivo functional mapping of the brain with cellular resolution in real-time. It has a huge potential for the brain-wide interpretation of functional activity in behavioral animals, thus expanding the range of possibilities in the field of biology.
The current paradigm of robot-assisted surgeries depends purely on surgeons’ vision. Autonomous robotic surgery promises enhanced efficacy, safety, and improved access to perform surgical procedures. However, the key unmet need regardless of various surgical approaches and techniques remains the real-time visualization of surgical sites. The next generation of surgical imaging and robotics for supervised- autonomous soft tissue surgery requires better vision and intelligent real-time display of anatomy and function during surgery. Coupling biomedical imaging techniques to surgical robotics will potentially reduce prolonged and highly variable surgical times and enhance surgical outcomes.