Adela Ben-Yakar

Research Interests

Development of ultrafast imaging and microfluidic systems for high-content drug screening using small animal models and 3D tissue constructs as applied to nerve regeneration, neurodegenerative diseases, aging, and toxicology; Femtosecond laser microsurgery and biomedical imaging, as applied to clinical image-guided surgery systems for treatment of disease such as cancer, spine stenosis, and scarred vocal folds.

Bio

Dr. Ben-Yakar Her research focuses on three main research directions. 1) Ultrafast laser microsurgery and nonlinear imaging, as applied to clinical image-guided surgery and diagnostics systems for treatment of disease such as spinal decompression, scarred vocal folds, and cervical cancer. 2) Development of high-throughput opto-fluidic systems for high-content testing using organoids and the small model organism, C. elegans, as applied to drug discovery, toxicity testing, nerve regeneration, and neurodegenerative diseases. 3) Development of ultrafast imaging modalities and instrumentation for 3D imaging flow cytometry and kHz volumetric imaging of brain function using LEAD (Line Excitation Array Detection) microscopy.

Dr. Ben-Yakar is a faculty member and area coordinator of the Thermal/Fluid Systems Area of the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. She has served on the College of Engineering faculty since 2004. She is a regular member of the Graduate Studies Committee of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Ben-Yakar received multiple research grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) totaling more than $26 million dollars to support her research team. She has 8 issued and 7 pending patents. She has presented more than 120 plenary and invited talks at major conferences and research institutes around the world. She is the co-founder and CEO of a startup vivoVerse, which provides cost effective and rapid testing of drugs and chemicals using a high-throughput microfluidic imaging platform integrated with AI-enabled data analytics. 

Select Awards & Honors 

1. Endowed Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering (2025)
2. Best Paper and Best Presentation Awards at Photonics West conference (2025)
3. Conference Chair at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) (2024)
4. Plenary Speaker at the Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (ASTFE) (2023)
5. Top downloaded paper in the Journal Biomedical Optics Express (2022)
6. Fellow of The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2019)
7. Human Frontier Science Program Award (2012)
8. NIH Director's Transformative Research Award (2011)
9. CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (2010)

Related Websites

Ben-Yakar Group

Selected Publications

Google Scholar