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Luke Lavis works at the interface of chemistry and biology, developing small-molecule fluorescent dyes to illuminate biological samples. Lavis and his team use modern organic chemistry to design and synthesize bright fluorescent labels for imaging structures inside living cells. By combining these novel compounds with advances in instrumentation, protein engineering, and genetic manipulation, the Lavis Lab and their collaborators devise sophisticated bioimaging experiments at different scales ranging from tracking single molecules to measuring neural activity in cells and animals.