1. Please tell us about yourself. What brought you to your current position?
With a background in robotics, sensors, machine learning (ML), and management, I worked with different groups at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2005—first as an investigator, then as a program lead and business development professional. Through my work at UCLA, I met Prof. Aydogan Ozcan, PhD, and his group, and was immediately excited about the disruptive artificial intelligence (AI)-based holographic microscopy technology for a myriad of applications across industries.
Our collaboration led to the formation of Lucendi, Inc., in 2016; the company was formally launched in September 2017. Since then, Lucendi has been engaged in various R&D projects focused on further developing the underlying IP and its applications to a wide array of problems—from laboratory science, public health, aquaculture, to pharma and life sciences.
2. What is your favorite part of the work you’ve done in this field?
Lens-based microscopy is a technology that dates to 1590, yet its fundamental principles are still widely used today. However, despite various advantages, optical microscopes are expensive, delicate, lack portability, and require expertise to operate, which are all barriers to scalability and widespread adoption.
Lucendi’s AI-based holographic microscopy technology is poised to disrupt this field by offering automated, cost-effective, high-throughput analytics that can easily be applied in-lab or in-field and customized to clients’ needs. These capabilities may democratize the microscopy technology and introduce it to the mainstream laboratory setting.
Therefore, being a part of revolutionary technology building and collaborating with talented colleagues striving to bring AI-powered microscopy to day-to-day operations are some of the most exciting parts of this work.
3. What is your talk about?
The talk introduces AI-based holographic microscopy technology, describes its capabilities and advantages over conventional lens-based technology, and demonstrates its wide-reaching potential in use cases from various industries.
4. Why do you think it’s important to discuss this topic with our audience?
Virtually every laboratory today uses some form of lens-based microscopy for analysis and characterization of micro-objects. For any given task, due to the limitations of this technology, scientists and technicians have to invest time and resources in sample preparation, workflow optimization, and fine-tuning instrument operational variables and calibration. Even when the data is captured, it needs to be carefully analyzed and characterized, often manually. Furthermore, since only a few samples can be processed at a time, this multi-step process must be repeated several times to achieve statistically significant results.
It is critical for the audience and stakeholders to learn about AI-based holographic microscopy as an alternative, cost-effective, rapid, and automated technology for screening samples and characterizing micro-objects based on the needs of a specific application. This talk will provide such an introduction and will demonstrate a few specific use cases to inspire the audience to change their existing processes and elevate experimental workflows.
Dr. Maxim Batalin is the co-founder and CEO at Lucendi, Inc., a company that develops innovative platforms for micro-object characterization leveraging breakthroughs of AI and holographic microscopy. Maxim received his PhD degree from the University of Southern California’s computer science department in 2005, after which he joined the University of California, Los Angeles, as a researcher and led R&D programs covering sensor networks, intelligent information technology infrastructure design, robotics, machine learning, and biomedical systems. Since 2009, Maxim has been involved with the UCLA Engineering Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA). During his tenure at the ITA, he led large multidisciplinary R&D programs, as well as technology maturation, business development, and commercialization programs on behalf of UCLA faculty and researchers. Maxim has over 50 refereed scientific publications and popular press articles, as well as several patent applications issued and pending.
Register today for free to attend Maxim’s and other insightful webinars at the 2025 Microbiology Week!
