Laura Marcu, PhD is Director of the Biophotonics Research and Technology Development Laboratory within the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Marcu established a research program in biophotonics at Cedars-Sinai and has developed cross-disciplinary collaboration involving clinical researchers and scientists.

Dr. Marcu's research interests are in the applications of laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging to biomedicine and biophysics. Her current research involves the development of fluorescence lifetime techniques for analysis of complex biological systems with applications to diagnosis of critical disease in human tissue (atherosclerosis, cancer), tissue engineering and functional analysis of cells and biomolecules. Her investigations have received funding from the National Institutes of Health, The Whitaker Foundation and Women in Science and Engineering.

Dr. Marcu also serves as a Research Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. There she has worked on developing research in functional optical microscopy and biophysics. She is member of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Optical Society of America, American Society for Photobiology, and SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering.

Dr. Marcu received her engineering degree in precision mechanics and optical instruments from Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. She earned her master's and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California.