TROY, N.Y. — When Sergio Pequito thinks about the brain, he visualizes a piano. The keys represent different parts of the brain, and the pressure applied by the pianist’s fingers represents the outside stimuli that promote brain functions.

TROY, N.Y. — Improving the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases like cancer will require more detailed, rapid, and agile imaging technology that can show doctors not just what a specific organ looks like, but also what’s happening within the cells that make up those tissues.