Tomocube’s story began with our CTO YongKeun (Paul) Park’s passion for science and innovation, adopting physics-based approaches to solving complex biomedical puzzles.
Upon completing his doctoral studies in Medical Physics and Medical Engineering at Harvard-MIT in 2010 he joined the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The research in his lab was focused on developing ‘Laser optics for understanding, diagnosing, and treating human diseases.’ The group has developed a series of label-free imaging techniques based on holography, a vital discipline now known as Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI).
Recognizing that QPI technology will enable biomedical researchers to make tremendous strides in a better understanding of pathophysiology of diseases, developing new clinical diagnostics and treatments, Paul has pitched his idea and received the support of the Institute for Startup KAIST (ISK). With ISK support and soon after teaming up with serial start-up entrepreneur Kihyun (Kenny) Hong Tomocube was born. In record-breaking time Paul and Kenny have built a powerful team with world-class engineering, bioscientific, software development and manufacturing skills. These relentless efforts resulted in the introduction in 2016 (merely 12 months since the company conception) of Tomocube’s proprietary Holographic Tomography.
HoloTomography (HT) is a laser interferometric technique which is employing a method broadly analogous to the use of X-rays in CT scans.
HT uses a laser beam and reconstructs a non-invasive tomographic visualization of a sample from the measurements of multiple 2D holographic images. Compared to conventional microscopic methods, HT utilizes the refractive index distribution of a biological sample as an intrinsic imaging contrast. 3D tomograms of cells and tissues are produced rapidly without labelling or staining providing morphologies of individual live cells with unprecedented accuracy and details over time, making the HT the world’s most versatile 4D Live Cell Analysis platform.
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Today Tomocube is opening new horizons by empowering HT technology with the complement of artificial intelligence (AI).
AI-based cellular and sub-cellular segmentation, feature extraction and inference of molecular (fluorescent signal-like) information from HT images achieves high accuracy in label-free phenotypic analysis and opens up new avenues to AI-driven data interpretation. Following the successful launch of HT in the research market, Tomocube embarks on developments in diagnostics and personalized medicine applications.
LEADERSHIP
Kihyun (Kenny) Hong
Yongkeun (Paul) Park
Kyungtae Oh
SungHo Ko