Improving in-situ imaging in biological systems is necessary for the expansion of our ability to research biological systems and improve diagnostic capability. As part of this effort, Akita Innovations is developing two groups of organic, bioconjugatable dyes with strong absorption in the NIR region.  The first group is a class of boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes developed for voltage sensitivity across cell membranes. These are water or ethanol/DMSO-soluble dyes with nonpolar segments for insertion into cell membranes, and fluoresce with high yield in the red/NIR when in a nonpolar environment.  They show significant fluorescence changes with changes in cell membrane voltage and minimal cellular toxicity.  The second group is a class of phthalocyanine (Pc) dyes and their analogs.  Pcs can be tuned to absorb 670 nm-860 nm and show a strong change in absorbance behavior upon intermolecular aggregation.  We illustrate using this change in absorbance as a biosensing mechanism.  This requires careful tuning of molecular architecture to optimize absorbance wavelength, aggregation behavior, and bioconjugation efficiency.  We report three DNA-conjugated Pc dyes with distinct absorbance spectra, each showing significant change in absorbance upon aggregation.  <br/>

Novel near infrared absorbing and fluorescent dyes for bioimaging

256th National Meeting (2018)

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