Carlson Lab
Read BioMy research program is focused on constructing new chemical tools for dynamic, spatiotemporally-controlled interactions with living systems. Building on strengths of our recent inventions and insights from detailed mechanistic investigations, these goals extend bioorthogonal chemistry by embedding reactions within architectures that generate new capabilities for ON/OFF control. From scission accelerated fluorophore exchange (SAFE), the first technique for multiplexed imaging in living systems, to our invention of bioorthogonal translation, which converts chemical to biological information, these projects aim to launch the field of bioorthogonal dynamics: temporospatially-regulated chemistry within living systems.
Recent Publications
Deutsch-Williams RJ, Xie Y, Rabinowitz Z, Goemans M, Wirapati P, Vinegoni C, Carlson JCT, Pittet M, Weissleder R
Targeting cancer- associated fibroblasts for real- time intraoperative tumor identification with a spray-on fluorescent probe. Sci Adv. 2025;11(47):eaeb5810 - PMID: 41259533 - PMCID: PMC12629203 - DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb5810Staudt M, Carlson JCT
Building a Medicinal Chemistry Framework for Bioorthogonal Probes. ACS Cent Sci. 2025;11(6):823-825 - PMID: 40606006 - PMCID: PMC12220826 - DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.5c00917Oh J*, Hoelzl J*, Carlson JCT, Bill R, Peterson HM, Faquin WC, Pittet MJ, Pai SI, Weissleder R
Spatial analysis identifies DC niches as predictors of pembrolizumab therapy in head and neck squamous cell cancer. Cell Rep Med. 2025;6(5):102100 - PMID: 40311615 - PMCID: PMC12147904 - DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102100Foy BH, Carlson JCT, Aguirre AD, Higgins JM
Platelet-white cell ratio is more strongly associated with mortality than other common risk ratios derived from complete blood counts. Nat Commun. 2025;16(1):1113 - PMID: 39875373 - PMCID: PMC11775293 - DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56251-9Quintana JM, Carlson JCT, Scott E, Ng TSC, Miller MA, Weissleder R
Scission-Enhanced Molecular Imaging (SEMI). Bioconjug Chem. 2024;35(10):1543-52 - PMID: 39255972 - PMCID: PMC11488501 - DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00337- More publications ...
News
Congrats to Markus Staudt, Peter Meinig, Riley Deutsch-Williams and our colleagues from the Mikula and Herth labs in Vienna and Copenhagen on acceptance of the click-cascade-assembly paper at Angewandte Chemie — should be online in the next few weeks! Some cool imaging experiments came together for the final version, courtesy of Reviewer #2, and thanks to Riley and RW pulling a mouse out of their proverbial hats.
The $3 million MGH Rappaport Grand Challenge on A Systems Level View of Human Disease was awarded to our project on understanding and preventing in hospital cardiac arrest with real-time beside AI. Our efforts will build on longstanding clinical-kinetics collaboration with CSB colleagues John Higgins and Aaron Aguirre. Thanks to the Rappaport Foundation and congratulations to the rest of the team, which spans CSB, the Wellman Center, the Heart & Vascular Institute, and the Neuroscience Institute.
Congrats to Markus Staudt on his poster being featured in the Sci-Mix Session for top abstracts at this year’s ACS fall meeting in Chicago. Lots of academic and industrial interest in our new techniques for cascade assembly—the paper should be coming out soon.
Welcome to Gerard Lorio, joining the lab later this month to work as a post-baccalaureate technician focused on systems engineering for our multiple ongoing imaging projects. Gerard comes to us after a distinguished undergraduate career at LSU — wish him luck surviving the winter!
Bravo to Peter Meinig on publication of his journal club paper in Nature Reviews Chemistry: “Tumour microenvironment in the surgical spotlight”. Peter collaborated with Dang Nguyen (who was a Fall 2025 student in Jonathan’s HBTM235 course at the medical school) to recap recent CSB work to develop spray-on probes for real-time detection of tumor boundaries in the operative context. Congrats to Peter and Dang.