# Sheldon Kwok

> Sheldon J.J. Kwok is the CEO and co-founder of LASE Innovation, a Boston-area techbio company turning microscopic lasers into cellular barcodes. He spent his PhD at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital building particles that emit pure laser light from inside living cells, then spun the work into a company aiming to give every cell a trackable identity and add a time dimension to flow cytometry.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at LASE Innovation Inc.
- **Organizations:** LASE Innovation Inc., Massachusetts General Hospital (former), Wellman Center for Photomedicine (former), Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology
- **Education:** B.A. in Chemical Physics (Chemistry honors), Columbia University, Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MD-track (HST MD program), Harvard Medical School / Harvard-MIT HST
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads LASE Innovation, commercializing LASE Particle (LP) Optical Cell Barcoding technology, Co-author of Nature Photonics paper on wavelength-encoded laser particles for massively multiplexed cell tagging, Helped develop intracellular laser particles emitting single-mode light from 1,170 nm to 1,580 nm with sub-nanometre linewidths

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Chemical Physics
- **2014** — Began PhD research at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital under Prof. Seok-Hyun (Andy) Yun
- **2019** — Completed PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics at MIT; co-founded LASE Innovation with Andy Yun
- **2020** — Co-author on 'Wavelength-encoded laser particles for massively multiplexed cell tagging' in Nature Photonics; company raises Series A
- **2023** — LASE Innovation publishes Multi-pass flow and Time-lapse flow cytometry methods; hires Trevor Brown as Chief Commercial Officer
- **2025** — LASE Innovation and Talon Biomarkers launch first-of-its-kind T-cell activation kinetics service

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads LASE Innovation, commercializing LASE Particle (LP) Optical Cell Barcoding technology
- Co-author of Nature Photonics paper on wavelength-encoded laser particles for massively multiplexed cell tagging
- Helped develop intracellular laser particles emitting single-mode light from 1,170 nm to 1,580 nm with sub-nanometre linewidths
- Raised over $9 million in financing for LASE Innovation
- Pioneered Multi-pass flow and Time-lapse flow cytometry, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering
- Received SBIR award to study T-cell function over time

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — LASE Innovation and Talon Biomarkers launched a first-of-its-kind service to unlock T-cell activation kinetics at single-cell resolution.
- **2023** — Published Multi-pass flow and Time-lapse flow cytometry methods and expanded commercial leadership.

## Links

- Website: https://laseinnovation.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheldon-j-j-kwok-53241434

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/sheldon-kwok
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-05