THE TEARNEY LAB

Transforming Medicine

Until recently, visualizing the architectural and cellular morphology of human tissue has required histopathological examination. Samples would be excised from the patient, processed, sectioned, stained and viewed under a microscope. In addition to being invasive, time consuming, and costly, the static nature of conventional pathology prohibits the study of biological dynamics and function. The Tearney Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital leads the way in transforming the current diagnostic paradigm through the invention and translation of new noninvasive, high-resolution optical imaging modalities that enable disease diagnosis from living patients without excising tissues from the body.
Led by Guillermo (Gary) Tearney, MD, PhD, the lab’s large multidisciplinary team invents, validates and translates novel devices that use light to conduct microscopy in living patients. Light is uniquely well suited for noninvasively interrogating the microscopic structure, molecular composition and biomechanical properties of biological tissues. The goal of the laboratory’s research is to improve understanding and diagnosis of disease by imaging the human body at the highest possible level of detail in vivo.

Slide 3

Spectrally Encoded Confocal Microscopy (SECM)

The Tearney laboratory has developed a new form of confocal microscopy, termed spectrally encoded confocal microscopy (SECM), that does not require integrated high-speed mechanical components, yet is capable of obtaining cellular-level resolution images at thousands of frames per second through an endoscope.

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Slide 1

The Tearney Lab’s Swallowable Capsule is named one of ​MIT Technology Review’s
​Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2019

​We are thrilled that this year’s guest curator, Bill Gates, chose our capsule to be included in MIT Technology Review’s Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies!
“The little probe will help researchers answer questions about EED’s (Environmental enteric dysfunction) development—such as which cells it affects and whether bacteria are involved—and evaluate interventions and potential treatments”. —Courtney Humphries

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Slide 2

Dr. Tearney’s journey as a Mass General Research Scholar is featured in the Summer 2018 issue of Mass General Magazine

“The MGH Research Scholars program offers greater freedom,” says Dr. Tearney, who was the Mike and Sue Hazard Family MGH Research Scholar from 2012 to 2017. “You can have a crazy idea that nobody believes will work, and you can try it.”

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