Development of bioorthogonal stimulated Raman scattering microscopy for evaluation of drug biodistribution

This project falls under the EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenge, Developing Future Therapies theme. Using a combination of modern synthetic methods and emerging imaging technologies we aim to develop a suite of labels for drugs which will allow us to determine the intracellular concentrations of drugs in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, the project aims to develop the use of biorthogonal alkyne labels to image anti-cancer drugs inside cells. These labels are designed to produce bands in their Raman spectra that fall in the 'cellular silent region', an area of the Raman spectra of a cell where no absorbances occur. This allows for Raman imaging with a very high signal to noise ratio. Using a bespoke stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscope we will image labelled drugs to provide information about their cellular distribution.
These new methods are of significant interest to the pharmaceutical industry for the development of new therapies and this work will be conducted in collaboration with AstraZeneca through a CASE award.