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Welcome to AnvariBiophotonicsLab at the University of California, Riverside!
In the News
December 2023
- Dr. Anvari has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
academyofinventors.org/nai-announces-2023-class-of-fellows/
November 2023
- Our manuscript "Membrane cholesterol enrichment and folic acid functionalization lead to increased accumulation of erythrocyte-derived optical nano-constructs within the ovarian intraperitoneal tumor implants in mice" has been accepted for publication in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine.
February 2023
- Our manuscript "Proteomes of Micro- and Nanosized Carriers Engineered from Red Blood Cells" has been published in Journal of Proteome Research.
Link to the paper : https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jproteome.2c00695
December 2022
- Chi-Hua Lee successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. Congratulations to Chi-Hua Lee!
September 2022
- Our manuscript "Erythrocyte-Derived Nanoparticles with Folate Functionalization for Near Infrared Pulsed Laser-Mediated Photo-Chemotherapy of Tumors" has been published in IJMS as part of the Special Issue Development of Responsive Nanoparticles for Cancer Interfaces.
Link to the paper : https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/18/10295
April 2022
- Our manuscript "Morphological Characteristics, Hemoglobin Content, and Membrane Mechanical Properties of Red Blood Cell Delivery Systems" has been published in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.
Link to the paper : https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.2c03472
- Our lab in collaboration with colleagues at UC Irvine and University of Kentucky has received a four-year $2 millions grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to investigate the utility of optical microparticles fabricated from red blood cells as potential phototherapeutic agents for treatment of port wine stains using transgenic mice and rabbit animal models of the disease.
January 2022
- Our manuscript “Membrane Cholesterol Enrichment of Red Blood Cell-Derived Microparticles Results in Prolonged Circulation" has been published in ACS Applied Bio Materials.
Link to the paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsabm.1c01104
May 2021
- Dr. Anvari is appointed as the founding Speciality Chief Editor for Biophotonics Section of Frontiers in Photonics
Link to more information: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/photonics/sections/biophotonics
- Our manuscript “Photothernasotics using erythrocyte-based particles” has been published in Biomolecules
Link to the paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/11/5/729
- Our manuscript “Near-infrared fluorescence imaging of intraperitoneal ovarian tumors in mice using erythrocyte-derived optical nanoparticles and spatially-modulated illumination” has been published in Cancers
Link to the paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/11/2544/htm
March 2021
-Taylor successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. Congratulations to Taylor!
December 2020
-Thompson successfully defended his doctoral dissertation. Congratulations to Thompson!
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December 2019
-Jenny Mac successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. Congratulations to Jenny!
November 2019
- Our lab has received an NSF grant in the amount of $300,000 for the project "Dual magnetic resonance and optical modalities for image-guided early detection, staging, and resection of ovarian tumors” in collaboration with Dr. Vikas Kundra at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
-Jack Tang successfully defended his doctoral dissertation. Congratulations to Jack!
November 2018
- Joshua M. Burns successfully defended his doctoral dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Burns!
August 2019
- Our manuscript "Functionalized erythrocyte-derived optical nanoparticles to target ephrin-B2 ligands" has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Biomedical Optics.
Authors of the study are Taylor Hanley, Rong Yin, Jenny T. Mac, Wenbin Tan, and Bahman Anvari.
This work is in collaboration with colleagues from University of South Carolina School of Medicine. It will be featured on the cover of the August issue of the journal.
March 2019
- Our manuscript "Biodistribution and toxicological evaluation of micron- and nano-sized erythrocyte-derived optical particles in healthy Swiss Webster mice" has been accepted for publication by Biomaterials Science. This study was done in collaboration with colleagues at UC Davis. Authors of the study are: Raviraj Vankayala*, Jenny T. Mac*, Joshua M. Burns, Eugene Dunn, Stefanie Carroll, Edver M. Bahena, Dipti K. Patel, Stephen Griffey, and Bahman Anvari.
* Raviraj and Jenny equally contributed.
- Our manuscript "Photothermal treatment of port wine stains using erythrocyte-derived particles doped with indocyanine green: A theoretical study" has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Biomedical Optics. The authors of the study are Joshua M. Burns, Wangcun Jia, and Stuart Nelson (UC Irvine), Boris Majaron (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia), and Bahman Anvari.
October 2018
- Dr. Anvari is the recipient of the 2019 Caroline and William Mark Award by the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS). He will be honored at the 39th ASLMS Annual Conference in Denver in March 2019.
August 2018
- Our manuscript "Near-Infrared-Fluorescent Erythrocyte-Mimicking Particles: Physical and Optical Characteristics" has been accepted for publication by IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Authors of the study are Jack C. Tang, Allen Partono, and Bahman Anvari.
July 2018
- Our manuscript "Erythrocyte-Derived Theranostic Nanoplatforms for Near Infrared Fluorescence Imaging and Photodestruction of Tumors" has been accepted for publication by ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Authors of the study are Joshua Burns, Raviraj Vankayala, Jenny Mac, and Bahman Anvari.
- Our lab in collaboration with Radoptics LLC has received an NIH Phase I SBIR grant in amount of ≈ $264,000 for the project "Erythrocyte-derived nanoparticles for light activated combination of chemo-photothermal therapy of tumors."
June 2018
- Our manuscript "Erythrocyte-Derived Optical Nano-Probes Doped with ICG-Bound Albumin: Material Characteristics and Evaluation for Cancer Cell Imaging" has been accepted for publication by ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering. Authors of the study are Jenny Mac, Raviraj Vankayala, Dipti Patel, Sabrina Wueste, and Bahman Anvari.
April 2018
- Our manuscript "Engineering optical nano‐vesicles derived from red blood cells with theranostic functionalities to fluorescently image and lyse blood clots" is featured on the front cover of the April issue of Macromolecular Bioscience: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/16165195/18/4
- Joshua Burns presented the paper "Fluorescence Imaging and Phototherapy of Breast Cancer Using Erythrocyte-Derived Near Infrared Nanoparticles" at the 38th ASLMS Conference in Dallas. Authors of the study are Joshua M. Burns, Raviraj Vankayala, Jenny T. Mac, and Bahman Anvari.
January 2018
- Our manuscript entitled "Erythrocyte-derived nanoparticles as a theranostic agent for near infrared fluorescence imaging and thrombolysis of blood clots" by Macromolecular Bioscience. Authors of the paper are Raviraj Vankayala, Samantha R. Corber, Jenny T. Mac, Masaru P. Rao, Mohammad Shafie, and Bahman Anvari.
- Joshua Burns presented the paper "Near infrared spatial frequency domain fluorescence imaging of tumor phantoms containing erythrocyte-derived optical nanoplatforms" at SPIE Photonics West BiOS Conference in San Francisco. Authors of the study are Joshua M. Burns, Elise Schaefer, and Bahman Anvari.
November 2017
- Joshua Burns receives a $1,800 grant from The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) to attend and present at Photonics West in San Francisco.
May 2017
- Our lab in collaboration with Radoptics LLC and colleagues at City of Hope have received a $270,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for the project "Erythrocyte-derived optical nano-probes for image-guided identification of tumor margins and cancer resection."
- Our manuscript entitled "Optical Characteristics and Tumor Imaging Capabilities of Near Infrared Dyes in Free and Nano-Encapsulated Formulations Comprised of Viral Capsids" has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
This is a study in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Authors of this study are Yadir Guerrero, Sheela Singh, Truong Mai, Ravoori Murali, Leela Tanikella, Atta Zahedi, Vikas Kundra and Bahman Anvari.
April 2017
- Joshua Burns has been selected as the Early Career Scientist Board Representative (2017-2019) of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS).
March 2017
- Joshua Burns has been selected as the UC Riverside winner of the "I am a UC Entrepreneur" video competition. Winners from each UC campus are invited to a luncheon to meet UC President Napolitano and venture capital investors Brook Byers, Josh Green and Brendon Kim.
November 2016
- Our manuscript "Optical properties of biomimetic probes engineered from erythrocytes" has been accepted for publication in Nanotechnology. This paper is in collaboration with our colleagues at the Beckman Laser Institute, UC Irvine, and Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. Authors of the study are Joshua Burns, Rolf Saager, Boris Majaron, Wangcun Jia, and Bahman Anvari.
July 2016
- Dr. Anvari has been elected as a Fellow of BMES (Biomedical Engineering Society). He will be honored at the Plenary of BMES Annual Meeting held in Minneapolis in October 2016.
March 2016
- Jenny Mac has been selected as the Early Career Scientist Board Representative of the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS).
- Our manuscript, "Combined optical micromanipulation and interferometric topography (COMMIT)" has been accepted by publication by Biomedical Optics Express. Authors of the study are Mohammad Sarshar, Thompson Lu, and Bahman Anvari.
- Our group has received a new NIH R01 grant for the project entitled "Erythrocyte-derived particles for near infrared phototherapy of port wine stain." The award is in collaboration with Dr. Stuart Nelson's group at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic in the amount of nearly ≈ $1.3 millions.
- Our manuscript, "Erythrocyte-derived nano-probes functionalized with antibodies for targeted near infrared fluorescence imaging of cancer cells" has been accepted for publication by Biomedical Optics Express. Authors of the study are Jenny T. Mac, Vicente Nunez, Joshua M. Burns, Yadir Guerrero, Valentine I. Vullev, and Bahman Anvari.
December 2015
- Yadir Guerrero and Mohammad Sarshar have successfully defended their doctoral dissertations—Congratulations to Yadir and Mo!!
September 2015
- Our manuscript, "Virus-resembling nano-structures for near infrared fluorescence imaging of ovarian cancer HER2 receptors." has been accepted for publication in Nanotechnology. Authors of the study are Yadir Guerrero, Baharak Bahmani, Sheela Singh, Valentine Vullev, Vikas Kundra, and Bahman Anvari. S. Singh and V. Kundra are with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
June 2015
- Dr. Anvari receives an NSF award in the amount of ≈ $355,000 for the project "erythrocyte-derived optical nano-vesicles as photo-theranostic agents".
- PhD student, Jenny Mac, receives a $5,000 grant from the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS) for project "Erythrocyte-Derived Nanoparticles for Targeted Near-Infrared Imaging and Laser-Mediated Photothermal Destruction of Cancer Cells.”
March 2015
- Drs. Anvari and John Yim, MD (http://www.cityofhope.org/people/yim-john) receive a joint City of Hope-UC Riverside Biomedical Research Initiative (CUBRI) grant in the amount of $100,000 for the project “Near infrared imaging of ovarian cancer peritoneal carcinomatosis.” Under this project, we will explore the potential effectiveness of optical nano-constructs derived from erythrocytes in targeted NIR imaging of such tumors in animal models.
October 2014
- Our manuscript "Comparative studies of methods to calibrate the stiffness of a single-beam gradient-force optical tweezer over various laser trapping powers" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics. The authors of the study are Mohammad Sarshar, Winson T. Wong, and Bahman Anvari.
June 2014
- Dr. Anvari receives a $50,000 grant for the project "Erythrocyte-derived optical nano-probes for near infrared fluorescence imaging of tumors " from the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee.
- The Office of Research and Economic Development at UCR has awarded Dr. Anvari a $24,000 award for the project "In-vivo imaging using optical nano-materials derived from erythrocytes".
- Our manuscript "Functionalized Polymeric Nanoparticles Loaded with Indocyanine Green as Theranostic Materials for Targeted Molecular Near Infrared Fluorescence Imaging and Photothermal Destruction of Ovarian Cancer Cells" has been accepted for publication in Lasers in Surgery & Medicine. The authors of the study are Baharak Bahmani, Yadir Guerrero, Danielle Bacon, Vikas Kundra, Valentine Vullev, and Bahman Anvari.
May 2014
- Dr. Anvari and collaborator Dr. Vikas Kundra from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center receive a three-year $400,000 grant for the project "Collaborative Research: A new paradigm for ovarian cancer imaging and therapy" from the National Science Foundation.
- Dr. Anvari and Dr. Vullev receive a Collaborative Seed Grant for $75,000 from The Office of Research and Economic Development at UCR for the project "Towards Establishing an NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Cell-Based Materials for Personalized Imaging and Therapeutics."
- Jack Tang, receives a Student Research Grant from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery for the project "Optimization of fabrication methods for maximizing the fluorescence emission of optical nano-vectors derived from erythrocytes."
March 2014
- Dr. Anvari has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS) as a representative for Biomedical Engineering.
February 2014
- Dr. Anvari has been elected as a Fellow of The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) for achievements in phototherapy, optical nano-materials, laser trapping methods, and membrane mechanics.
April 2012
- Prof. Anvari is elected to serve as the Chair of the Bourns College of Engineering Executive Committee for a three year term effective September 1, 2012.
August 2013
- Our manuscript entitled "Revisiting Indocyanine Green: Effects of Serum and Physiological Temperature on Absorption and Fluorescence Characteristics" has been accepted for publication by IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. Authors of the study are Bongsu Jung, Valentine Vullev, and Bahman Anvari.
July 2013
- Our paper entitled "Virus-mimicking optical nano-materials: near infrared absorption and fluorescence characteristics, and physical stability in biological environments" by Bongsu Jung and Bahman Anvari has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
- Our lab has provided the first results to demonstrate the engineering of near infrared photo-theranostics nano-constructs composed of membranes derived from red blood cells that encapsulate the FDA-approved dye, ICG. This work is published in Nature's Scientific Reports. Authors of the study are Baharak Bahmani, Danielle Bacon and Bahman Anvari.
June 2013
- Yadir Guerrero presented some of his results related to the optical properties and photothermal response of OVGs at the 87th ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, and 14th UC System-wide Bioengineering Symposium.
- Dr. Anvari presented our work on the use of OVGs for targeted fluorescence imaging of ovarian cancer cells at 2013 meeting of European Foundation for Clinical Nanomedicine (CLINAM) in Basel, Switzerland.
March 2013
- Baharak's paper "Effects of Nano-encapsulation and PEGylation on Biodistribution of Indocyanine Green in Healthy Mice: Quantitative Fluorescence Imaging and Analysis of Organs,” has been accepted for publication by International Journal of Nanomedicine.
February 2013
- Baharak and Yadir presented their recent results at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco.
- Nima's paper "Effects of plasma membrane cholesterol level and cytoskeleton F-actin on cell protrusion mechanics,” has been accepted for publication by PLoS ONE. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Alex Spector at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. William Brownell at Baylor College of Medicine.
January 2013
- Our research on the use of virus-mimicking optical nano-constructs for near infrared photoacoustic imaging is accepted for publication in Nanoscale. This is a collaborative effort involving Professor Lihong Wang at Washington University at St. Louis.
December 2012
- Congratulation to Yadir Guerrero for receiving the best poster award at UCR SPIE student poster competition. His poster was entitled "Directed Targeting of HER-2 over-expressing Ovarian Cancer Cells by Optical Viral Ghosts".
- UCR SPIE student chapter hosted the UCR SPIE Lecture Series + Student Poster Competition on December 4th. Prof. Ian Kennedy from UCDavis was the second presenter of UCR SPIE lecture series and judge of the student poster competition.
October 2012
August 2012
- Congratulations to Nima for defending his PhD thesis. Nima has joined Prof. Michael Berns research group at UC Irvine as a postdoctoral fellow.
June 2012
- Prof. Anvari is awarded a Research Fellowship by UCR Academic Senate Committee on Research.
- Prof. Anvari was invited to CBET Grantee Conference.
May 2012
- Prof. Anvari gave an invited lecture (Nano-materials for Near Infrared Optical Imaging and Phototherapy) at The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 23, and was honored "In recognition of pioneering innovations in laser-based technologies and biophotonics."
- Baharak was awarded an SPIE scholarship in Optics and Photonics.
