Abstract: Almost all clinical imaging modalities (e.g. MRI, ultrasound, x-ray, CT, PET, etc.) employ exogenous contrast agents to identify diseased sites and enhance diagnostic capabilities. Optical coherence tomography (OCT), which relies on the optical backscattering signals from a sample to form structural images, has also benefited from the use of contrast agents. A variety of contrast agents engineered to exploit their scattering or absorption properties have been developed for OCT. As most diseases originate at the cellular or molecular level, generating molecular-specific contrast can significantly aid in the early detection of disease. Magnetomotive optical coherence tomography (MM-OCT) is a functional extension of OCT which utilizes magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as contrast agent. MM-OCT imaging in conjunction with targeted MNPs/magnetic microspheres is useful for detecting disease in human (e.g., atherosclerotic lesion, breast cancer, etc.) and for assessing the viscoelastic properties of the surrounding tissues. Dr. Kim received his BS in Electrical Engineering at University of Illinois in 2004, then his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh in 2009. Following his PhD, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, also at the University of Pittsburgh, before coming back to the University of Illinois and joining the Boppart Group as a Carle Foundation Hospital-Beckman Institute Fellow in 2011.