“PBMCs can be isolated clinically really easily, and they’re already used in the clinical workflow,” says Melissa Skala, an investigator in biomedical engineering at the Morgridge Institute and senior author of a new study in Biophotonics Discovery. “So, the question is, what can we get from them that we aren’t already getting?”

Skala and her Morgridge Institute lab, including Ph.D. student Jeremiah Riendeau, are working to bring advanced imaging techniques to bear on the quest to retrieve as much information as possible from immune cells. In the process, they hope to help improve diagnosis and treatment of immune system-related conditions like blood cancers, lupus, sepsis and cognitive decline.