inventive professor helps other scientists take a closer look

By Julia Reischel of The University Reporter, april 2008

In an office tucked away in the Science Building, physics professor D.V.G.L.N. Rao and his protégé post-doc Chandra S. Yelleswarapu finish each other’s sentences as they explain the workings of their invention, the Fourier Phase Contrast Microscope, which images minute organisms more realistically and in greater detail than the microscopes widely used by biologists around the world.

This year, in a rare honor for a UMass Boston faculty member, Rao is being recognized, along with seven others throughout the UMass system, with a $30,000 award from the University of Massachusetts Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP) that will help them develop the microscope commercially.

The award is part of the CVIP’s annual set of grants that reward innovative research at UMass with funds aimed at developing commercial applications for promising technologies. This year, in the awards’ fifth cycle, the grants total $240,000 and support a broad array of technologies in many fields of research, including medical devices, HIV drug effectiveness, and biomass fuel production. Dr. Rao’s microscope is the only UMass Boston technology to receive the award.

As Rao and Yelleswarapu explain the complicated physics that underpin their work, William Brah looked on proudly. As the executive director of the UMass Boston Venture Development Center, which manages the CVIP program on campus and acts as the incubator and promoter of university research, they played a crucial role in procuring funding for Dr. Rao’s work.

“We regard Dr. Rao as an innovator way ahead of his time,” Brah says. “Society is demanding innovation, and it is appropriate for the university to discover his work as it wakes up to the call for innovation. Dr. Rao has an active lab, active teaching, and active publications—the whole package.”

Rao and Yelleswarapu’s microscope is based on a dramatic improvement upon standard phase contrast microscopes, which work by exploiting a property of light, its “phase,” which shifts when light travels through transparent or semi-transparent materials. Human eyes can’t detect phase shifts, but through the use of a device called a “phase plate,” the phase shifts are converted into variations in the light’s brightness, allowing scientists to get a more detailed view of the inner workings of biological specimens.

When phase contrast microscopes were first introduced in the 1930’s, they eventually won their inventor a Nobel Prize, but they had their drawbacks: Cells appear to be two-dimensional, and are surrounded by a white “halo.”

Rao and Yelleswarapu’s update uses lasers, liquid crystals, and a lens that performs a “Fourier transform” on the light waves, which create brighter, clearer, three-dimensional images. Additionally, the team’s design is also more rugged, mechanically simpler, and simpler to operate than the models used in laboratories today.

“It uses no moving parts, and is a lot more user-friendly,” Rao says.

Rao and Yelleswarapu plan to use the $30,000 from the grant to create a working prototype that will help them convince a manufacturer to sell their microscope.

Rao is delighted to have the extra resources because they will not only help him introduce his invention to the world, but it will allow him to focus on what he does best: teaching and researching.

“I know what I’m good at, and I know what I cannot do,” he says. “I’m not a development guy.”

 Rao has been a Professor of Physics at UMass Boston for forty years, and has been producing original research for the same amount of time. In 1973, the year of the first graduating UMass Boston class, he published a research paper that was recognized by the American Physical Society. Since then, he has published over 100 papers and procured five patents.

First and foremost, however, Rao sees himself as a teacher. He teaches two classes and has served as the Graduate Program Director for the past ten years. He has shepherded scores of students into their own careers, and has given all of them, even undergraduates, opportunities to conduct original research in his laboratory, producing new insights into optics and lasers.

“I’m a teacher and a basic researcher,” Rao says. “Luckily, what I do for my basic research has real-world applications.”

The microscope is just one of those real-world applications. There’s also mammogram technology that can detect “micro-calcifications,” a laser eye-protection project, optical holographic storage, and photonic applications for nano materials.

It’s a testament to Rao’s relationship with his students that some have stayed with him even after getting their doctorates. One of these is Yelleswarapu, who says that talking with Rao is always an education. “Not just about science, but about everything,” he grins.

As if to illustrate that point, Rao digresses from his lecture on optics to mention that the simple principles that underlie his research have sparked his interest in spirituality. For example, he says, phase and intensity are excellent metaphors for the religious principles of the soul and the body.

“Intensity is like the body, and phase is like the soul,” he says. “The soul has all the characteristics of a person, while the body is the part that you see.”

“You cannot see the phase, just like you cannot see the soul,” Yelleswarapu adds, nodding. “But it carries some of the most important information of all.” As he watches his former student, Rao’s smile deepens. Clearly, the $30,000 grant is a prize, but hearing Yelleswarapu explain the implications that their invention has for the spirit is priceless.