Dr. Kai Bao is a faculty member of Bioimaging & Nanomedicine Program at the Gordon Center for Medical Imaging of MGH. His early stage career was focused on the development of novel macrolide antibiotics and novel tubulin inhibitors for the treatment of cancers. In addition, he also worked on the development of novel synthetic methods for the construction of important biomolecules. His findings not only lead to the new effective choices when building the bioactive molecules but also contribute to the rational design of derivatives from the lead compounds and the Structure Activity Relationships study.

Since 2012, Dr. Bao’s research focuses on the development of novel contrast agents for tumor targeting and diagnosis. Of particular interest is “Structure-Inherent Targeting,” where small molecules can be used for targeting, imaging, diagnosis and therapy by specifically visualizing target tissue with high optical properties and by avoiding nonspecific uptake in normal background tissues. Based on medicinal chemistry and virtual chemical library, they have been successfully developing NIR fluorophores targeted to bone, cartilage, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and prostate cancer, etc. In addition, Dr. Bao and his group are currently attempting to translate the targeted nuclear-NIR agents into the clinic by converting the chemical scaffold with PET and SPECT radiolabeling for both noninvasive preclinical imaging and intraoperative image-guided surgery.