Laboratory for Advanced Microscopy and Bioengineering
The Laboratory for Advanced Microscopy and Bioengineering (The LAMB) at East Tennessee State University develops optical and engineering tools to address open problems in biology, medicine, and the emerging bioeconomy. We work across scales — from single cells imaged with ultrafast lasers to bioreactors running on open-source hardware — and across disciplines, because the most interesting problems rarely stay in one lane.
Our students get hands-on experience building instrumentation, designing experiments, and thinking about how science connects to real-world impact in the Appalachian region and beyond.
Active Projects
Downstream Processing Workforce Development
The emerging bioeconomy needs trained workers who understand not just how to grow biological products, but how to get them out. We are developing a suite of hybrid online and in-person training modules focused on downstream processing — the set of techniques used to separate and purify a valuable product once it has been produced in a living system.
Our curriculum covers:
- Centrifugation
- Filtration
- Chromatography
- Distillation
- Lyophilization
- Spray drying
This project is part of a broader effort to build bioeconomy workforce capacity in the Appalachian region, funded by over $1.3M in grants for biomanufacturing workforce development.
Raman Spectroscopy in Mycological Systems
Yeasts and fungi are metabolically rich, biochemically complex, and largely underexplored as targets for vibrational imaging. Their distinct lipid profiles, cell wall compositions, and metabolic signatures make them ideal candidates for Raman-based analysis.
We are developing techniques to apply Raman spectroscopy to mycological systems with two main goals:
- Fingerprinting — using Raman spectra to classify and distinguish classes of fungi based on their molecular makeup, without the need for labels or stains
- Process monitoring — leveraging Raman as a real-time process analytical tool to track growth dynamics and chemical product development in oleaginous (oil-producing) yeasts
This work connects directly to biomanufacturing applications, where knowing what an organism is doing — and when — is critical to optimizing yield.
Open-Hardware Bioreactor Development
Optimizing biological processes requires the ability to run many experiments, vary conditions, and iterate quickly. For resource-limited labs and institutions, the cost of commercial bioreactor systems is a significant barrier.
Our students are building open-source, open-hardware bioreactors at the 1–2 liter scale using off-the-shelf components and widely available control systems. The goal is to produce well-documented, reproducible designs that other low-resource labs can build and adapt — lowering the barrier to entry for bioprocess research and training across the region.
Laboratory Members
Principal Investigator
Richard is an Assistant Professor and Biomedical Engineering Technology Coordinator at ETSU. His research focuses on vibrational microscopy, nonlinear optical imaging, and open-hardware bioengineering. He completed his PhD in Biophotonics at UC Irvine and holds an NSF IGERT fellowship.
Join the Lab
We are always looking for curious, motivated students at the undergraduate and graduate level. If any of these projects interest you, reach out at princerc@etsu.edu.