Chemical Imaging Techniques Lab

AboutAbout the lab

Seeing molecules in living systems with the power of chemistry

The lab studies chemical biology: it uses molecules made with chemical methods to investigate how biomolecules function inside living cells and animals.
It designs and synthesizes by organic synthesis molecules whose fluorescence intensity or color changes when they encounter biomolecules in the body, and molecules that change MRI contrast (probe molecules).
As a bar for its research, the lab requires that the molecules it creates can actually be used in biological research.
The core discipline is chemistry, but students also study biology and physics as needed.

ResearchResearch themes

This lab aims to create new research materials with chemistry and use them to investigate the functions of biomolecules inside living cells and animals. It works on the chemical synthesis and development of probe molecules that convert information about molecules in the body into readable chemical information.

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Fluorescent probes that visualize cell function↗

The lab is developing a fluorescent probe that makes it possible to see the activity of osteoclasts (cells that dissolve bone) inside the bones of animals. The probe combines a dye that fluoresces in acidic environments with a structure that reaches bone tissue, and it allowed bone resorption to be observed in real time.

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Fluorescent labeling of proteins↗

Fluorescent proteins have a weakness: the timing and amount of labeling cannot be controlled. The lab is therefore developing a method to easily fluorescently label a protein of interest, using a probe that lights up only when it binds to a tag protein.

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MRI probes that capture enzyme reactions↗

Using 19F MRI, which detects fluorine-19, an isotope that is almost absent from the body, the lab is developing probes whose signal changes in response to enzyme reactions. It detected the activity of caspase, an enzyme involved in cell death, inside the body of a mouse.

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Light-responsive molecules↗

The lab develops caged compounds, which release drugs and other substances at a specific place and time when exposed to light, and fluorescent molecules whose spectral properties change reversibly with light. Many of these require ultraviolet light, but the lab has recently developed a protecting group that works with visible light.

VoicesStudent voices

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