Academic Profile

Dr. Mortensen received his B.S in Bioengineering from the University of Toledo in 2003, and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in Biomedical Engineering in 2011 under Prof. Lisa DeLouise. His research focused on understanding the impact of sunburn on skin and skin cell interaction with nanoparticles, and confocal microscopy of nanoparticle skin penetration. Following his Ph.D., Luke served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School with Prof. Charles Lin. While at MGH/HMS he worked on developing 2 photon intravital microscopes, engineering mesenchymal stem cell therapeutics, and investigating stem cell roles in bone regeneration. Currently, Luke is an associate professor with joint appointments in Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at the University of Georgia. His research primarily focuses on regenerative medicine in bone and muscle. Long term goals of his research are to create next generation super-resolution 2 and 3 photon microscopes for imaging cell organelles through opaque bone, and to leverage key imaging and lipid metabolite features associated with MSC therapeutic potency to biomanufacture efficacious cell therapies. 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Mortensen, L.J.; Alt, C.; Turcotte, R.; Masek, M.; Liu, T.; Xu, C.; Intini, G.; Lin, C.P. “Femtosecond laser bone ablation with a high repetition rate fiber laser source,” accepted for publication at Biomedical Optics Express.

Lee, S.K.; Mortensen, L.J.; Lin, C.P.; Tung, C.-H. “An authentic cell fate tracker: from beginning to end,” Nature Communications 2014, 5.

Turcotte, R.; Alt, C.; Mortensen, L.J.; Lin, C.P. “Characterization of multiphoton microscopy in the bone marrow following intravital laser osteotomy,” Biomedical Optics Express 2014, 5, 3578.

Ksander, B.R.; Kolovou, P.E.; Saab, K.R.; Wilson, B.J.; Guo, Q.; Ma, J.; Gregory, M.S.; Perez, V.L.; Mortensen, L.J.; Alt, C.; Cruz-Guilloty, F.; Vincent, W.J.B.; McGuire, S.P.; Kao, W.W.Y.; Call, M.K.; Lin, C.P.; Tucker, B.A.; Frank, M.H.; Frank, N.Y. “A limbal stem cell gene required for corneal development and repair,” Nature 2014, 511, 353.

Spencer, J.A.; Ferraro, F.; Roussakis, E.; Klein, A.; Wu, J.; Mortensen, L.J.; Alt, C.; Runnels, J.M.; Vinogradov, S.A.; Scadden, D.T.; Lin, C.P. “Direct measurement of local oxygen concentration in the bone marrow of live animals,” Nature 2014, 508, 269.

Mortensen, L.J.; Levy, O.; Phillips, J.A.; Stratton, T.; Triana, B.; Ruiz, J.P.; Gu, F.; Karp, J.M.; Lin, C.P. “Quantification of Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) delivery to a target site using in vivo confocal microscopy,” PLOS ONE 2013, 8, e78145.

Levy, O.; Zhao, W.; Mortensen, L.J.; LeBlanc, S.; Tsang, K.; Fu, M.; Phillips, J.A.; Sagar, V.; Anandakumaran, P.; Ngai, J.; Eimon, P.; Angel, M.; Lin, C.P.; Yanik, M.F.; Karp, J.M. “mRNA-engineered mesenchymal stem cells for targeted delivery of interleukin-10 to sites of inflammation,” Blood 2013, 122, e23.

Pestana, N.; Mortensen, L.J.; Runnels, J.; Vickers, D. Murthy, S.K.; Lin, C.P.; Niedre, M. “An Improved Prototype Diffuse Fluorescence Flow Cytometer for High Sensitivity Detection of Rare Circulating Cells In Vivo,” J. Biomed. Optics 2013, 18, 77002.

Mortensen, L.J.; Jatana, S.; Gelein, R.; De Benedetto, A.; De Mesy Bentley, K.L.; Beck, L.A.; Elder, A.; DeLouise, L.A. “Quantification of quantum dot murine skin penetration with UVR barrier impairment,” Nanotoxicology 2013, 7, 1386.

Mortensen, L.J.; Ravichandran, S.; DeLouise, L.A. “The impact of UVB exposure and differentiation state of primary keratinocytes on their interaction with quantum dots,” Nanotoxicology, 2013, 7, 1244.

Sarkar, D.; Spencer, J.A.; Phillips, J.A.; Zhao, W.; Schafer, S.; Spelke, D.P.; Mortensen, L.J.; Ruiz, J.P.; Vemula, P.K.; Sridharan, R.; Kumar, S.; Karnik, R.; Lin, C.P.; Karp, J.M. “Engineered Cell Homing,” Blood 2011, 118, e184.

Mortensen, L.J.; Glazowski, C.E.; Zavislan, J.M.; DeLouise, L.A. “Near-IR confocal microscopy for imaging of quantum dots in mammalian skin,” Biomedical Optics Express 2011, 2, 1610.?

Mortensen, L.J.; Oberdorster, G.; Pentland, A.P.; DeLouise, L.A. “In Vivo Skin Penetration of Quantum Dot Nanoparticles in the Murine Model: The Effect of UVR,” Nano Lett. 2008, 8, 2779.