Nicolas Pavillon (Assistant Professor), Nicholas I. Smith (Associate Professor, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University) and collaborators developed a label-free multimodal microscopy platform that allows the non-invasive study of cellular preparations without the need of any additional chemicals or contrast agent. The parameters extracted from these measurements, coupled with machine algorithms, enable the study of fine cellular processes such as macrophage cells activation upon exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The authors demonstrate that activation, as well as partial activation inhibition, can be observed at single-cell level through phenotypic and molecular characterization purely through non-invasive optical means.