Behnaz Abbasgholi Nejad Asbaghi obtained her Ph.D. and MSc in Spectroscopy and Instrumentation (Analytical Chemistry) from Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Research Center of Iran (CCERCI). Currently, she is a visiting scientist at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and her research focuses on the development of optical sensing systems based on photothermal lens techniques and fluorescence spectroscopy for the detection of biomolecules, including DNA and proteins, miniaturization of gel electrophoresis, DNA hybridization assay using gold nanoparticles in a microfluidic device and photothermal lens microscopy.