Jung-Jae Lee
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Chemistry
Finding every last bit of a tumor is one of the hardest problems in cancer surgery. Scans used before and after an operation, such as PET, CT and MRI, cannot resolve deposits smaller than about half a centimeter, so microscopic disease and small metastatic lymph nodes are easily missed, and incomplete removal is a major reason treatment fails.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biomedical Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
chemiluminescence imaging
near-infrared imaging
gold nanorods
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Develop near-infrared chemiluminescent and fluorescent chitosan nanoparticles that are stored cold and activated by body heat, giving a self-illuminating contrast agent that needs no external light source.
- Attach synthetic targeting ligands to the nanoparticles and test whether they mark surgical margins and metastatic lymph nodes using combined in vivo and ex vivo optical imaging in mice.
- Synthesize pyridone-based singlet-oxygen release agents with enough thermal stability to be stored, and conjugate them to chitosan-coated gold nanorods.
- Test whether near-infrared light heating of gold nanorods triggers a retro Diels-Alder reaction that releases trapped singlet oxygen and produces chemiluminescence without depending on environmental oxygen.
- Characterize the nanoprobes by UV-Vis and FTIR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential, and measure luminescence intensity, on/off cycling and temperature under near-infrared irradiation.
More about the research
Optical imaging could help, but light-based probes have their own limits. Work here builds nanoparticle probes that glow by themselves through chemiluminescence, light produced by a chemical reaction rather than by an external lamp or laser. Because nothing has to be shone in, background signal is low and contrast is high, and the near-infrared light these probes emit passes through tissue better than visible light. Two projects extend this idea in different directions.
Why it matters
Survival for head and neck cancer has improved only modestly, partly because surgeons lack a reliable way to see tumor margins and involved lymph nodes during an operation. Self-illuminating, low-toxicity nanoprobes could let surgeons remove disease more completely while preserving normal tissue, and oxygen-independent versions could make imaging work inside oxygen-starved tumors where current bioluminescence methods fail, supporting better treatment planning and monitoring.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Body heat activated, storable, near-infrared, self-illuminating nanoprobes for chemiluminescence imaging of cancer
NIH · Sep 2024 – Sep 2027
Development of Near-Infrared Photothermal Chemiluminescent Gold Nanoprobes by Utilizing Retro Diels-Alder Reaction of Trapped Singlet Oxygens
NIH · Jul 2025 – Jun 2027
Closest labs
Ronda Bibbs
Johnson C Smith University, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether citrus plant extracts, which contain natural phytochemicals, slow the growth of different isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium behind pneumonia.
Srivalleesha Mallidi
Tufts University, MA·Biomedical Engineering
Synthesize and characterize Verosite nanodroplets — perfluorocarbon particles carrying the photosensitizer verteporfin, oxygen, and indocyanine green dye — and optimize their stability and light-triggered liquid-to-gas conversion.
Stephen Miller
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Chemistry
Design and synthesize new luciferin substrates, the small molecules that firefly luciferase oxidizes to emit light, whose emission extends into the near infrared, where light penetrates animal tissue most effectively.
The school
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus: 41 labs on PI Pages, $766M a year on research, 205 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus
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