Light-Responsive Inorganic Compounds for Diagnosis and Therapy

Surgery, alone or in combination with other therapies, is a cornerstone of cancer treatment. However, incomplete resection leads to increased risk of recurrence and reduced overall survival. Here optical image guided surgery (IGS) has a role to play by enhancing tumor visualization and improving surgical precision. It has notable advantages over visual inspection and histology aided by real-time CT, MRI, or optical scanners alone, but could be improved with new optical imaging agents. IGS could benefit from imaging agents that luminesce brightly in the wavelength region where tissue is most transparent. Further, IGS agents that also exert potent antitumor effects would enable simultaneous detection and treatment of disseminated cancer cells that cannot be removed due to their location around critical organ structures. This project will design osmium compounds that are highly luminescent at wavelengths where tissue is the most transparent. The optical agents will be inert and nontoxic, but phototoxic toward cancer cells through complementary modes of action, regardless of oxygenation status. The multidisciplinary strategy is based on the unique photophysical properties of certain immunostimulatory osmium compounds, with specialized ligands, that can be independently tuned for near-infrared luminescence output and phototherapy with minimal impact by oxygen. The molecular properties of these inorganic compounds can be further augmented by encapsulation in supramolecular structures such as nanolipid carriers. The project scope is to synthesize and characterize new compounds, determine their molecular properties, interrogate their photophysical and cellular mechanisms of action, and evaluate their utility as multifunctional optical imaging agents with therapeutic capacity. These activities will expose undergraduate students to multidisciplinary research and create new knowledge regarding optical imaging agents that addresses current challenges that have so far prevented IGS from being effectively used for hard-to-resect cancers. This project will also strengthen the research environment at UTA by enabling long-term sustainable biomedical research and inspiring a new generation of students to pursue innovative solutions to critical human health challenges. Project Number: 1R15CA309873-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Cancer Institute (NCI) | Principal Investigator: Sherri McFarland | Institution: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON, ARLINGTON, TX | Award Amount: $565,569 | Activity Code: R15 | Study Section: Chemical Synthesis and Biosynthesis Study Section[CSB] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11292279