Bio-sketch: Dr. Laura Marcu received her diploma in Mechanical Engineering – Fine Mechanics from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in 1984, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1995 and 1998, respectively. From 2001-2005 she served as the Director of Biophotonics Research and Technology Development - Department of Surgery at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.  While at Cedars-Sinai, she held a joint appointment as a Research Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics with the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California.  She joined the University of California Davis in the winter of 2006 as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Currently, she is also affiliated with the NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology at the University of California Davis Medical School. Her research program is funded by several agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Whitaker Foundation for Biomedical Engineering; and she is the recipient of Woman in Science and Engineering award. Dr. Marcu is member of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Optical Society of America, American Society for Photobiology, SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society and Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine. She has authored over 100 publications, given over 30 invited scientific presentations, and held 7 patents and patents applications.  Dr. Marcu research interests include in vivo optical spectroscopy and imaging for enhanced detection of disease in human tissue (cancer, cardiovascular); fluorescence-based minimally invasive medical diagnostics technology; high spatial– and time–resolution optical techniques for in-vivo imaging; optical bioMEMS; bionanophotonics: nanocrystals applications to molecular imaging.