AZBio Board of Directors

Jennifer K. Barton, Ph.D.

Director

BIO5 Institute

The University of Arizona.

Jennifer K. Barton was elected to the AZBio Board of Directors in June of 2014.

Dr. Barton is known for her development of miniature endoscopes that combine two novel imaging techniques: optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy. She also evaluates the suitability of these optical techniques for detecting early cancer development in patients and pre-clinical models. She is particularly interested in colon and ovarian cancer, and conducted the first pilot test of optical coherence tomography in women, seeking to determine if this technique could identify the early stages of cancerous development.

Dr. Barton has also conducted significant research into laser-tissue interaction and dynamic optical properties of blood. This work laid the groundwork for a novel therapeutic laser to treat disorders of the skin’s blood vessels (port wine stains). She has published over 90 peer-reviewed journal papers in these and related research areas.

Dr. Barton was inaugural Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and previously served as Associate Vice President for Research.  She is a fellow of SPIE- the International Optics Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering

Dr. Barton received the BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and University of California, Irvine, respectively. She worked for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) on the Space Station program before returning to the University of Texas at Austin to obtain the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 1998.