Andrew J. Bower, PhD

• BS, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Optical Engineering and Physics, 2012
• MS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2014
• PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2019
• Postdoctoral Fellow, National Eye Institute, 2025

Dr. Bower is a biomedical engineer and vision scientist with deep interest in biomedical optical imaging. His research integrates cutting-edge imaging technologies with translational applications in ophthalmology, aiming to develop and refine innovative tools for noninvasive, cellular-resolution imaging of the living human retina. His work is particularly focused on the retinal pigment epithelium, a critical cell layer implicated in many blinding retinal diseases. A key objective of his lab is to bridge the gap between next-generation optical imaging modalities and clinical ophthalmic imaging to enable assessment of retinal disease progression at the cellular level in patients.

Dr. Bower earned his B.S. in Optical Engineering and Physics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral research focused on label-free assessment of cellular metabolism using multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. As a postdoctoral fellow at the National Eye Institute, he contributed to the development of a clinical adaptive optics retinal imaging instrument that integrated scanning light ophthalmoscopy and optical coherence tomography to study the onset and progression of retinal disease in patients. He is the recipient of an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award.

adaptive optics, ophthalmic imaging, fluorescence lifetime imaging, optical coherence tomography, retinal pigment epithelium,

Bower, A. J., Liu, T., Aguilera, N., Li, J., Liu, J., Lu, R., Giannini, J. P., Huryn, L. A., Dubra, A., Liu, Z., Hammer, D. X., Tam, J., Integrating adaptive optics-SLO and OCT for multimodal visualization of the human retinal pigment epithelial mosaic. Biomedical Optics Express, 12.3 (2021):1449-1466. PMID: 33796365

Bower, A. J., Li, J., Chaney, E. J., Marjanovic, M., Spillman, Jr., D. R., Boppart, S. A., High-speed imaging of transient metabolic dynamics using two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. Optica, 5.10 (2018):1290-1296. PMID: 30984802

Bower, A. J., Marjanovic M., Zhao, Y., Li, J., Chaney, E. J., Boppart S. A., Label-free in vivo cellular‑level detection and imaging of apoptosis. Journal of Biophotonics, 10.1 (2017):143-150. PMID: 27089867