Rahul Pal, PhD

Dr. Rahul Pal is a biochemist with training in cancer detection and biomedical imaging. At University of Texas Medical Branch, his graduate work focused on the applications of optical microscopy and fluorescence imaging in cancer biology. Dr. Pal received postdoctoral training in biomedical optics in Dr. Anand Kumar's lab at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, and subsequently became an Instructor at Harvard Medical School in 2022.

His resarch focuses on the identification of innovative image-based molecular and microstructural biomarkers for early-stage and metastatic cancers using optical imaging techniques. Dr. Pal's research exploits fluorescence lifetime as a contrast mechanism for molecular imaging in clinically relevant murine models of cancer. His long-term goal is to harness the power of optical molecular imaging by establishing a research program focused on the in vivo detection and quantification of cancer biomarkers for a wide variety of preclinical and clinical applications such as 1) selection of patients for molecular-targeted therapy and monitoring therapy response (e.g. immunotherapy), and 2) simultaneously tracking multiple biochemical processes that are critical for tumorigenesis.