The Grainger College of Engineering
Bioengineering

Hongqiang Ma

Hongqiang Ma
Hongqiang Ma
  • Research Assistant Professor

Primary Research Area

  • Biomedical imaging

Research Areas

  • Biomedical imaging
  • Biophotonics
  • Computational bioengineering
  • Single-molecule imaging

Education

  • B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2009
  • Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2014

Academic Positions

  • Research Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, January 2024 - present
  • Research Assistant Professor, Departments of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, November 2017 - December 2023

Service on Department Committees

  • BIOE PhD qualifying exam committee

Service to Federal and State Government

  • 2025, Reviewer and panelist, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH/NIGMS)
  • 2024, Reviewer and panelist, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID)

Research Interests

  • High-resolution, multimodal, multiplex, mesoscope for information-rich spatial biology
  • High-throughput super-resolution localization imaging platform to map the multiplex biomarkers of clinical tissue and biopsy with a nanoscale resolution

Primary Research Area

  • Biomedical imaging

Research Areas

  • Biomedical imaging
  • Biophotonics
  • Computational bioengineering
  • Single-molecule imaging

Chapters in Books

  • Hongqiang Ma and Yang Liu, "Super-Resolution Imaging through Single-Molecule Localization," in Biomedical Optical Imaging: From Nanoscopy to Tomography, edited by Jun Xia and Regine Choe (AIP Publishing, Melville, New York, 2021), Chapter 4, pp. 4-1–4-26.

Selected Articles in Journals

  • Chen, M., Ma, H., Sun, X. et al. Multimodal whole slide image processing pipeline for quantitative mapping of tissue architecture and tissue microenvironment. npj Imaging 3, 26 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44303-025-00088-w
  • Ma H, Nguyen P, Liu Y. A Versatile Drift-Free Super-Resolution Imaging Method via Oblique Bright-Field Correlation. Adv Sci 2024:2412127. https://doi.org/10.1002/ADVS.202412127.
  • Ma H, Chen M, Xu J, Yang Y, Zhao Y, Liu Y. An Omni-Mesoscope for multiscale high-throughput quantitative phase imaging of cellular dynamics and high-content molecular characterization. Science Advances, 2024; 10: eadq5009.
  • Xu J, Sun X, Chen Z, Ma H, Liu Y. Super-resolution imaging of T lymphocyte activation reveals chromatin decondensation and disrupted nuclear envelope. Communications Biology, 2024; 7: 717.
  • Ma H, Chen M, Nguyen P, Liu Y. Towards drift-free high-throughput nanoscopy through adaptive intersection maximization. Science Advances, 2024; 10: eadm7765.
  • Skoko JJ, Cao J, Gaboriau D, Attar M, Asan A, Hong L, Paulsen CE, Ma H, Liu Y, Wu H, Harkness T, Furdui CM, Manevich Y, Morrison CG, Brown ET, Normolle D, Spies M, Spies MA, Carroll K, Neumann CA. Redox regulation of RAD51 Cys319 and homologous recombination by peroxiredoxin 1. Redox Biol. 2022 Oct;56:102443. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2022.102443. Epub 2022 Aug 24. PubMed PMID: 36058112; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9450138.
  • Xu J, Sun X, Kim K, Brand RM, Hartman D, Ma H, Brand RE, Bai M, Liu Y. Ultrastructural visualization of chromatin in cancer pathogenesis using a simple small-molecule fluorescent probe. Sci Adv. 2022 Mar 4;8(9):eabm8293. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8293. Epub 2022 Mar 4. PubMed PMID: 35245126; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8896800.
  • Ma H, Liu Y. Robust emitter localization with enhanced harmonic analysis. Opt Lett. 2021 Dec 1;46(23):5798-5801. doi: 10.1364/OL.437409. PubMed PMID: 34851893; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8640370.
  • Ma H, Jiang W, Xu J, Liu Y. Enhanced super-resolution microscopy by extreme value based emitter recovery. Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 14;11(1):20417. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00066-3. PubMed PMID: 34650088; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8517018.
  • Ma H, Liu Y. Embedded nanometer position tracking based on enhanced phasor analysis. Opt Lett. 2021 Aug 15;46(16):3825-3828. doi: 10.1364/OL.433740. PubMed PMID: 34388751; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8622170.
  • [Ma H#, Xu J#], Ma HB, Jiang W, Mela CA, Duan M, Zhao S, Gao C, Hahm ER, Lardo SM, Troy K, Sun M, Pai R, Stolz DB, Zhang L, Singh S, Brand RE, Hartman DJ, Hu J, Hainer SJ, Liu Y. Super-resolution imaging reveals the evolution of higher-order chromatin folding in early carcinogenesis. Nat Commun. 2020 Apr 20;11(1):1899. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15718-7. PubMed PMID: 32313005; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7171144.
  • Ma H, Xu J, Liu Y. WindSTORM: Robust online image processing for high-throughput nanoscopy. Sci Adv. 2019 Apr;5(4):eaaw0683. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw0683. eCollection 2019 Apr. PubMed PMID: 31032419; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6486217.
  • Nmezi B, Xu J, Fu R, Armiger TJ, Rodriguez-Bey G, Powell JS, Ma H, Sullivan M, Tu Y, Chen NY, Young SG, Stolz DB, Dahl KN, Liu Y, Padiath QS. Concentric organization of A- and B-type lamins predicts their distinct roles in the spatial organization and stability of the nuclear lamina. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Mar 5;116(10):4307-4315. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1810070116. Epub 2019 Feb 14. PubMed PMID: 30765529; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6410836.
  • Xu J, Ma H, Jin J, Uttam S, Fu R, Huang Y, Liu Y. Super-Resolution Imaging of Higher-Order Chromatin Structures at Different Epigenomic States in Single Mammalian Cells. Cell Rep. 2018 Jul 24;24(4):873-882. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.06.085. PubMed PMID: 30044984; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6154382.
  • Gao Y, Tan J, Jin J, Ma H, Chen X, Leger B, Xu J, Spagnol ST, Dahl KN, Levine AS, Liu Y, Lan L. SIRT6 facilitates directional telomere movement upon oxidative damage. Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 29;8(1):5407. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23602-0. PubMed PMID: 29599436; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5876328.
  • Ma H, Xu J, Jin J, Huang Y, Liu Y. A Simple Marker-Assisted 3D Nanometer Drift Correction Method for Superresolution Microscopy. Biophys J. 2017 May 23;112(10):2196-2208. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.04.025. PubMed PMID: 28538156; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5444076.
  • Gao Y, Li C, Wei L, Teng Y, Nakajima S, Chen X, Xu J, Leger B, Ma H, Spagnol ST, Wan Y, Dahl KN, Liu Y, Levine AS, Lan L. SSRP1 Cooperates with PARP and XRCC1 to Facilitate Single-Strand DNA Break Repair by Chromatin Priming. Cancer Res. 2017 May 15;77(10):2674-2685. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-3128. Epub 2017 Apr 17. PubMed PMID: 28416484; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5500382. (Performed data analysis)
  • Ma H, Fu R, Xu J, Liu Y. A simple and cost-effective setup for super-resolution localization microscopy. Sci Rep. 2017 May 8;7(1):1542. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01606-6. PubMed PMID: 28484239; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5431525.
  • Ma H, Xu J, Jin J, Gao Y, Lan L, Liu Y. Fast and Precise 3D Fluorophore Localization based on Gradient Fitting. Sci Rep. 2015 Sep 22;5:14335. doi: 10.1038/srep14335. PubMed PMID: 26390959; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4585720.
  • Ma H, Kawai H, Toda E, Zeng S, Huang ZL. Localization-based super-resolution microscopy with an sCMOS camera part III: camera embedded data processing significantly reduces the challenges of massive data handling. Opt Lett. 2013 Jun 1;38(11):1769-71. doi: 10.1364/OL.38.001769. PubMed PMID: 23722738.
  • Ma H, Long F, Zeng S, Huang ZL. Fast and precise algorithm based on maximum radial symmetry for single molecule localization. Opt Lett. 2012 Jul 1;37(13):2481-3. doi: 10.1364/OL.37.002481. PubMed PMID: 22743428.
  • Huang ZL, Zhu H, Long F, Ma H, Qin L, Liu Y, Ding J, Zhang Z, Luo Q, Zeng S. Localization-based super-resolution microscopy with an sCMOS camera. Opt Express. 2011 Sep 26;19(20):19156-68. doi: 10.1364/OE.19.019156. PubMed PMID: 21996858. (Introduced sCMOS to super-resolution imaging field)

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