Michael Levene received his bachelor’s degree in Optics from the University of Rochester. He then went on to obtain his PhD in the Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, where his thesis work focused on holographic neural networks and holographic data storage. Patents stemming from his Ph.D thesis were licensed to Holoplex, Inc. Dr. Levene then changed gears and undertook postdoctoral research in the Biophysics group of Watt W. Webb at Cornell University, where he was the first to demonstrate the use of gradient index lenses for multiphoton microscopy of deep brain structures in living mice. During his time at Cornell, Dr. Levene also developed zero-mode waveguides, a device for performing single molecule DNA sequencing. This technology has been licensed to Pacific Biosciences for rapid commercialization.

Now an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale, Dr. Levene is continuing to expand the range of multiphoton towards more clinically relevant applications. These include the further development of gradient index lenses for multiphoton image-guided neurosurgery and the use of multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging for evaluating the underlying nature metabolic abnormalities in human an murine epileptic tissue. Dr. Levene is also developing a multiphoton approach to true 3D histology, and is applying single-molecule techniques to the development of novel blood analyses for clinical laboratory diagnostics.