Jana Kainerstorfer, PhD

Dr. Jana Kainerstorfer is an Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.  She received her PhD in Physics from the University of Vienna, Austria, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. She has an extensive background in optical imaging, with an emphasis on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging. She has particular experience in developing instruments as well as data analysis of optical data. The Biophotonics Lab’s research is focused on developing noninvasive optical imaging methods for disease detection and/or treatment monitoring, with an emphasis on diffuse optical imaging. In particular, the research is focused on the role of the microvasculature in a variety of diseases and developing imaging methods which can be used in the clinic and at the patient’s bedside. For this, we dominantly are focusing on non-invasive, diffuse optical imaging with near-infrared light. The emphasis of the research spans two primary areas: 1) Instrument and protocol development of non-invasive optical imaging methods which can yield biomarkers for disease diagnostics and monitoring, and 2) Translation of such imaging tools to answer clinical questions where microvascular imaging can be of use for understanding a pathophysiology or monitoring of disease. Current projects include development of a hand-held device for breast cancer imaging as well as cerebral hemodynamic monitoring in traumatic brain injury. Dr. Kainerstorfer serves on program committees at national and international conferences (including the SPIE Photonics West as well as OSA Topical Meetings) and served as Program Chair for the OSA Biophotonics Congress: Optical Tomography and Spectroscopy in 2020. She further is an associate editor for Journal of Biomedical Optics (SPIE), served as associated editor for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, as a guest editor for Opportunities in Neurophotonics in APL Photonics, and as editor for the Virtual Journal of Biomedical Optics (a journal of the Optical Society of America). She was elected as a senior member of the Optical Society of America. Her research has been funded by AHA, NIH, ONR, DARPA, and the Air Force, including the NIH R21 Trailblazer as well as AHA Scientist Development Grant. View a list of Dr. Kainerstorfer’s publications here.