Developing near-infrared emissive DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters for biomedical imaging in the tissue transparency window

The increased transparency of biological tissues and fluids to near-infrared (NIR) light motivates the development of NIR fluorescence imaging. We are developing a promising new class of NIR emitters for fluorescence imaging, DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters (Ag-DNAs), for bioimaging and sensing. By developing chemically-informed machine learning models, we map the sequence of the templating DNA oligomer onto silver nanocluster color, allowing us to discover new NIR-emissive Ag-DNAs. We also determine how nanocluster geometry influences photophysical and chiroptical properties. Finally, we report that Ag-DNAs can retain their chemical stability in biologically relevant solutions when protected by additional halide ligands. Together, this work has led to the development of new NIR-emissive Ag-DNAs for potential applications as fluorescent contrast agents in the NIR tissue transparency window.