2018_11_28_HPC_2232

Principal Investigator Helmholtz Pioneer Campus

Prof. Dr. Oliver Bruns

“My vision is that, in 10 years, SWIR imaging will be the gold standard for preclinical and clinical imaging. Every research center and every major clinic will have SWIR detection systems and will use novel contrast agents, like those I plan to develop with my team and collaborators. This new generation of optical imaging techniques will enable preclinical contact-free imaging in awake and behaving mice and, in the future, clinical imaging with single-cell sensitivity and penetration depth up to centimeters.”

Research Area

Vision: short-wave infrared region (SWIR) is the future of optical imaging

Professional Background

Since 2022

Head of Department Functional Imaging in Surgical Oncology, NCT Dresden

since 2018

Principal Investigator Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Helmholtz Zentrum München

2015 - 2017

Research Scientist (Senior Scientist), Department of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2011 - 2015

Postdoctoral Associate in the group of Prof. Moungi Bawendi at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2009 - 2011

Senior Scientist at Heinrich-Pette-Institute Hamburg/Germany

Selected Paper

Honors and Awards

  • Emmy Noether Group leader DFG 2018
  • EMBO Long-Term Fellowship 2011 - 2013
  • DAAD fellowship (declined in favour of EMBO Long-term Fellowship) 2010
  • ‘Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes’ Fellowship 2006 - 2009
  • Travel grant for the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2017
  • EMBL Advanced Training Centre Fellowship (Travel grant) and Dr. Wilhelmy-GSO-Fellowship (Travel grant) 2015
  • SPOT award by MIT School of Science and Travel grant by MIT PDA 2014
  • Karl-Heinz Hölzer Award for Interdisciplinary Medical Research (PhD-Thesis) 2010
  • Young Investigator Award, 77th European Atherosclerosis Congress, 2008, Istanbul, Turkey 2008
  • Young Investigator Award, 30th annual Meeting of European Lipoprotein Club, Tutzing, Germany 2007
  • Award for the best diploma thesis in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology 2006
  • Spokesman of the Student Committee of the 'GBM' (German Biochemical Society) 2004 - 2008

Publications

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 147, 17384–17393 (2025)

Spearman, A.L. ; Lin, E.Y. ; Mobley, E.B. ; Chmyrov, A. ; Arus, B.A. ; Turner, D.W. ; Garcia, C.A. ; Bui, K. ; Rowlands, C.J. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Sletten, E.M.

High-resolution multicolor shortwave infrared dynamic in vivo imaging with chromenylium nonamethine dyes.
Nat. Biotechnol., DOI: 10.1038/s41587-024-02528-1 (2025)

Luo, J. ; Molbay, M. ; Chen, Y. ; Horvath, I. ; Kadletz, K. ; Kick, B. ; Zhao, S. ; Al-Maskari, R. ; Singh, I. ; Ali, M. ; Bhatia, H.S. ; Minde, D.-P. ; Negwer, M. ; Höher, L. ; Calandra, G.M. ; Groschup, B. ; Su, J. ; Kimna, C. ; Rong, Z. ; Galensowske, N. ; Todorov, M.I. ; Jeridi, D. ; Ohn, T.-L. ; Roth, S. ; Simats, A. ; Singh, V. ; Khalin, I. ; Pan, C. ; Arus, B.A. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Zeidler, R. ; Liesz, A. ; Protzer, U. ; Plesnila, N. ; Ussar, S. ; Hellal, F. ; Paetzold, J.C. ; Elsner, M. ; Dietz, H. ; Ertürk, A.

Nanocarrier imaging at single-cell resolution across entire mouse bodies with deep learning.
Chem. Commun. 61, 4820-4823 (2025)

Pieczykolan, M. ; Dancer, P.A. ; Klein, T. ; Piwonski, H. ; Rolbieski, H. ; Maity, B. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Cavallo, L. ; Kiessling, F. ; Rueping, M. ; Banala, S.

Small organic fluorophores with SWIR emission detectable beyond 1300 nm.
Acta Biomater. 195, 536-546 (2025)

Huang, Y. ; Stankevych, M. ; Gujrati, V. ; Klemm, U. ; Mohammed, A. ; Wiesner, D. ; Saccomano, M. ; Tost, M. ; Feuchtinger, A. ; Mishra, K. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Geerlof, A. ; Ntziachristos, V. ; Stiel, A.-C.

Photoswitching protein-XTEN fusions as injectable optoacoustic probes.
ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c07932 (2024)

Arteaga Cardona, F. ; Madirov, E. ; Popescu, R. ; Wang, D. ; Busko, D. ; Ectors, D. ; Kübel, C. ; Eggeler, Y.M. ; Arus, B.A. ; Chmyrov, A. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Richards, B.S. ; Hudry, D.

Dramatic impact of materials combinations on the chemical organization of core-shell nanocrystals: Boosting the Tm3+ emission above 1600 nm.
Nat. Photonics, DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01465-4 (2024)

Wang, F. ; Zhong, Y. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Liang, Y. ; Dai, H.

Author Correction: In vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging for biology and medicine (Nature Photonics, (2024), 10.1038/s41566-024-01391-5).
Nat. Photonics, DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01391-5 (2024)

Wang, F. ; Zhong, Y. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Liang, Y. ; Dai, H.

In vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging for biology and medicine.
Laser Photon. Rev. 17:2300292 (2023)

Lingg, J.G.P. ; Bischof, T.S. ; Arus, B.A. ; Cosco, E. ; Sletten, E.M. ; Rowlands, C.J. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Chmyrov, A.

Shortwave-infrared line-scan confocal microscope for deep tissue imaging in intact organs.
J. Biomed. Opt. 28:094803 (2023)

Klein, T. ; Yang, S. ; Tusty, M.A. ; Nayak, J.V. ; Chang, M.T. ; Bruns, O.T. ; Bischof, T.S. ; Valdez, T.A.

Development of a shortwave infrared sinuscope for the detection of cerebrospinal fluid leaks.
Front. Neurosci. 17:1135494 (2023)

Arus, B.A. ; Cosco, E. ; Yiu, J. ; Balba, I. ; Bischof, T.S. ; Sletten, E.M. ; Bruns, O.T.

Shortwave infrared fluorescence imaging of peripheral organs in awake and freely moving mice.

Oliver Bruns Lab