Belén Torrado
Biography
Belén Torrado, Ph.D., is Assistant Project Scientist in the Nonlinear Optical Microscopy Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on advancing fluorescence microscopy techniques for biomedical applications, including the development of an S-FLIM-SHG microscope with enhanced detection capabilities that enables simultaneous acquisition of fluorescence lifetime imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and second harmonic generation imaging for optical metabolic imaging. She has also contributed to the development of a multiplexing microscope capable of simultaneous fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging, and has applied the Phasor Approach for quantitative analysis of fluorescence lifetime imaging data.
Torrado received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, Molecular and Cell Biology from the Universidad de la República Uruguay in 2019, where her dissertation examined the participation of the nuclear import machinery in protein transport to the cilium. During her graduate research, she investigated the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway and primary cilia biology, focusing on the mechanisms and dynamics of protein transport of the transcription factor Gli2 to various cellular organelles. She completed postdoctoral research at the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics at UC Irvine from 2019 to 2024, where she developed expertise in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, metabolic imaging, and hyperspectral imaging with solvatochromic dyes.
Torrado has co-authored a Nature Reviews Methods Primer on fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy and has contributed to consensus guidelines for cellular label-free optical metabolic imaging published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics. She has filed two provisional patent applications related to phasor-based imaging devices and hyperspectral imaging systems. She serves on the board of the UCI Women in Research postdoc mentoring program and has been involved in organizing workshops and conferences, including the LFD Workshop in Advanced Fluorescence Imaging and Dynamics and the Frontiers in Biological Fluorescence symposium.
Return to topEducation
- PhD in Biological Sciences, Molecular and Cell Biology, Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de la República Uruguay, 2019
- M.Sc. in Biological Sciences, Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de la República Uruguay, 2015
- B.A. in Biochemistry, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República Uruguay, 2012
Distinctions
- Best Poster Presentation Award, 9th Meeting of the Uruguayan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2018
- Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship, The Company of Biologist (Journal of Cell Science), 2017
- Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), Uruguay, 2018
- Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship, Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), 2017
- Graduate Research Fellowship, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), Uruguay, 2016
- Graduate Research Fellowship, Comisión Académica de Posgrados, Uruguay, 2015
- Master Research Fellowship, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), Uruguay, 2013
- Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), Uruguay, 2012
- HSRU Seed Grant: STEM Grant Writing Virtual Workshop for Early Career Latina/x Scholars, 2023
Areas of Expertise
- Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy
- Phasor Approach Analysis
- Primary Cilia Biology
- Hedgehog Signaling Pathway
- Optical Metabolic Imaging
- Hyperspectral Imaging Techniques
- Bioluminescence Multiplexing Platforms
Recent Publications
- Ranjit S., Torrado B., Vallmitjana A., Durkin A.F., Dvornikov A., Ganesan A., Kelly K.M., Balu M., “Label-free human skin imaging with enhanced molecular contrast via time-resolved fluorescence and advanced phasor analysis” (opens in new tab), Communications Biology, vol. 9, 2026.
- Irene Georgakoudi, Melissa C. Skala, Kyle P. Quinn, Chiara Stringari, Belén Torrado, Alexander Vallmitjana, Michael Wang-Evers, Roger Zemp, “Consensus guidelines for cellular label-free optical metabolic imaging: ensuring accuracy and reproducibility in metabolic profiling” (opens in new tab), Journal of Biomedical Optics, vol. 30, no. S2, pp. S23901, 2025.
- Vallmitjana, A., Durkin, A., Dvornikov, A., Torrado, B., Kelly, K. M., Shiu, J., Ganesan, A., Balu, M., “Label-free multiphoton microscopy of human skin: longitudinal studies capturing cell dynamics” (opens in new tab), Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 16, no. 10, pp. 3912-3922, 2025.
- Vallmitjana, A., Torrado, B., Durkin, A. F., Dvornikov, A., Rajil, N., Ranjit, S., Balu, M., “GSLab: open-source platform for advanced phasor analysis in fluorescence microscopy” (opens in new tab), Bioinformatics, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. btaf162, 2025.
- Torrado B., Vallmitjana A., Ranjit S., Far-Hadian M., Durkin A.F., Dvornikov A., Ganesan A.K., Kelly K.M., Chang P., Balu M., “InvVivo human skin imaging: Distinguishing cellular and fibrillar components with fluorescence lifetime microscopy” (opens in new tab), Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2025.
- Torrado, B., Pannunzio, B., Malacrida, L., Digman, M. A., “Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Methods Primers, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 80, 2024.
- Aguilar, J., Malacrida, L., Gunther, G., Torrado, B., Torres, V., Urbano, B. F., Sánchez, S. A., “Cells immersed in collagen matrices show a decrease in plasma membrane fluidity as the matrix stiffness increases” (opens in new tab), Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Biomembranes, vol. 1865, pp. 184176, 2023.
- Torrado B, Vallmitjana A., Dvornikov A., Gratton E., “Phasor-based S-FLIM-SHG devices and uses thereof”, 2023. Patent No. 63/545,931.
- Guaglianone, G., Torrado, B., Lin, Y. F., Watkins, M. C., Wysocki, V. H., Gratton, E., Nowick, J. S., “Elucidating the Oligomerization and Cellular Interactions of a Trimer Derived from Aβ through Fluorescence and Mass Spectrometric Studies” (opens in new tab), ACS chemical neuroscience, vol. 13, no. 16, pp. 2473-2482, 2022.
- Torrado, B., Malacrida, L., Ranjit, S., “Linear Combination Properties of the Phasor Space in Fluorescence Imaging” (opens in new tab), Sensors, vol. 22, pp. 999, 2022.
- Vorontsova, I., Vallmitjana, A., Torrado, B., Schilling, T. F., Hall, J. E., Gratton, E., Malacrida, L., “In vivo macromolecular crowding is differentially modulated by aquaporin 0 in zebrafish lens: Insights from a nanoenvironment sensor and spectral imaging” (opens in new tab), Science advances, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. eabj4833, 2022.
- Vallmitjana, A., Torrado, B., Gratton, E., “Phasor-based image segmentation: machine learning clustering techniques” (opens in new tab), Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 3410-3422, 2021.
- Torrado, B., Dvornikov, A., Gratton, E., “Method of transmission filters to measure emission spectra in strongly scattering media” (opens in new tab), Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 12, pp. 3760-3774, 2021.
- Vallmitjana, A., Torrado, B., Dvornikov, A., Ranjit, S., Gratton, E., “Blind Resolution of Lifetime Components in Individual Pixels of Fluorescence Lifetime Images Using the Phasor Approach” (opens in new tab), Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 124, pp. 10126-10137, 2020.
- Vallmitjana, A., Dvornikov, A., Torrado, B., Jameson, D. M., Ranjit, S., Gratton, E., “Resolution of 4 components in the same pixel in FLIM images using the phasor approach” (opens in new tab), Methods and Applications in Fluorescence, vol. 8, pp. 035001, 2020.
- Malacrida, L., Hedde, P. N., Torrado, B., Gratton, E., “Barriers to Diffusion in Cells: Visualization of Membrane-less Particles in the Nucleus”, The Biophysicist, vol. 1, 2020.
- Torrado B., Graña M, Badano JL, Irigoín F., “Ciliary Entry of the Hedgehog Transcriptional Activator Gli2 Is Mediated by the Nuclear Import Machinery but Differs from Nuclear Transport in Being Imp-α/β1-Independent” (opens in new tab), PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. e0162033, 2016.
Contact Information
Email: btorrado@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-3340
Address: R208 Beckman Laser Institute, Irvine, CA 92697
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Last updated on 2/17/2026.