USF’s Jerome Breslin is working to increase understanding of the lymphatic system and its role in disease. The goal of the Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics, and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program is to make “the invisible lymphatic system visible” by developing new techniques for medical imaging, identifying new biomarkers, and identifying genomic variants that can be used to diagnose lymphatic dysfunction.

“Probably the most important … is imaging. Currently there is no way to image things like lymph flow in real time, at least more than once in the same person,” says Breslin. One purpose is to build a database that enables the direct connection between a person’s genome, the protein expression profile at the tissue level, and direct functional analysis of the person’s lymphatic vessel function. 

• Jerome Breslin