The Rogalla Lab

The Rogalla Lab aims to improve early cancer detection for gastrointestinal cancers.  The lab is working to develop novel probes that reflect disease-relevant tissue properties as well as exploring new applications for existing probes and implementing near infrared probes into the clinic.

Thus, we pertain to design next-generation probes and instruments for early detection of premalignant and malignant gastrointestinal lesions. We demonstrated the performance of a protease-activated near-infrared fluorescent probe in multiple preclinical models (Yim et al., PNAS, 2021). A clinical trial to use a cathepsin targeting probe to detect colorectal cancer in humans using fluorescence endoscopy will be launched this spring.  The lab is as well currently working to enable Raman spectroscopy as a theragnostic tool to detect and defeat esophageal, gastric and colon cancer in several animal models.

Figure 2. Concept of fluorescence-guided detection of colorectal cancer using 6QC-ICG. (A) Chemical structure and schematic of the 6QC-ICG mechanism. (B) Schematic of a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence endoscope used in the clinic. The probe is injected intravenously, and the GI physician uses an endoscope outfitted with an NIR (805/835 nm) detector and overlay fluorescence signals with a white- light image to detect lesion(s). (C) Sample image illustrating the concept of how our targeted fluorescent dye 6QC-ICG enables fluorescence-guided endoscopy of highlighted cancerous lesions that express cathepsins. Fluorescence is concen- trated to the colorectal lesions and overlaid onto the white-light image. Adapted from Yim et al., PNAS, 2021.

We are working as well to understand the pathophysiology of inflammatory and neoplastic conditions that affect the gastrointestinal tract in order to improve detection and diagnosis as well as guide precision medicine therapy for these diseases. Researchers in the lab study gastrointestinal tissue architecture, mucosal immunity, and work to engineer novel molecular imaging systems. The lab utilizes next-generation high-dimensional technologies, such as co-detection by indexing (CODEX) and cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF), and advanced computational approaches to characterize gut tissue microenvironments and host immune responses. The lab has developed methods for guiding TNF inhibitor therapy in ulcerative colitis (UC), a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and created a tissue atlas demonstrating the utility of spatial parameters as a precision medicine tool (Mayer et al., Research Square, 2021 Science Adv paper will be out tomorrow, we will add a hyperlink to that one then). We continue to expand our projects probing mucosal immune dynamics in IBD.

Figure 1. A spatial atlas of the UC inflammatory microenvironment. Adapted from Mayer et al., Research Square, 2021