At the Marine Biological Laboratory, polarization and interference microscopy in biology have been advanced and practiced by the work of Shinya Inoué, Robert D. Allen, and others since 1949.  Currently, the laboratories of Rudolf Oldenbourg and Michael Shribak continue the tradition by developing new approaches in hardware and software to expand and harness the analytic power of light microscopy.

The Laboratory of Rudolf Oldenbourg specializes in instrument development for biological microscopy using innovative polarized light techniques.  These physical and engineering projects are stimulated and guided by biological inquiries into the structural basis of cell function.  We seek interdisciplinary collaborations for research in cell biology, in physical optics, and in computational imaging to enhance our understanding of life through imaging.