Indrajit Srivastava
Texas Tech University, TX·Biomedical Engineering
Medical scans such as CT, MRI and PET are expensive, can involve radiation, and are slow. As a result, they cannot easily guide decisions in real time, for example during surgery, and they mainly show anatomy rather than function.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
fluorescence imaging
NIR-II imaging
second near-infrared window
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2031
What they work on
- Systematically vary the topology, molecular weight and composition of fluorescent polymers to map how each feature affects NIR-II optical performance, including brightness, quantum yield and emission stability.
- Measure how polymer architecture controls pharmacokinetics, including clearance route, circulation half-life, organ retention and immune evasion, and combine the results into quantitative design maps.
- Validate the design rules across diverse polymer scaffolds to test whether they predict probe behavior generally rather than for one specific probe.
- Apply the design maps to NIR-II fluorescent probes for kidney (renal) diagnostics, vascular imaging and real-time tumor visualization during surgery.
More about the research
Fluorescence imaging detects light given off by glowing probes in the body. It is portable, radiation-free and gives instant molecular feedback. Light in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 900–1200 nm) penetrates tissue more deeply, scatters less, and avoids the body's own background glow. Yet NIR-II probes have been slow to reach clinical and research use. The reason is that no one can yet predict how a probe's chemical structure determines how it behaves in the body. Development proceeds by trial and error, producing probes that are either bright but poorly characterized or biocompatible but dim.
Why it matters
Real-time, radiation-free fluorescence imaging could help surgeons see tumors during operations, assess kidney function, and image blood vessels, without the cost and radiation exposure of CT or PET. Predictive rules for designing brighter, safer NIR-II probes could make such tools more reliable and easier to adapt across diseases. They could also expand access to real-time molecular imaging in diverse healthcare environments.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jung-Jae Lee
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Chemistry
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.
Haiying Liu
Michigan Technological University, MI·Chemistry
Design and synthesize near-infrared BODIPY dye probes that emit two colors whose ratio reports viscosity, with improved water solubility, stability and ability to enter cells.
Xiaocun Lu
Clarkson University, NY·Chemistry
Build a library of molecular force gauges, molecules that change color or glow under force, to measure compressive and tensile forces in cells and biological targets.
The school
Texas Tech University: 9 labs on PI Pages, $257M a year on research, 415 research doctorates a year.
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