Texas Tech researcher receives $2.1M grant to advance biomedical imaging - fox34.com

Dr. Indrajit Srivastava, an assistant professor in Tech's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, received the Maximizing Investigators' Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The five-year grant funds his work on second near-infrared imaging, known as NIR-II, and the nanomaterials that make it possible.

NIR-II imaging works by using longer wavelengths of near-infrared light, which pass through biological tissue with far less scattering and interference than standard imaging methods produce. That difference matters: cleaner images mean doctors can potentially catch things they would otherwise miss, or see them earlier. This research is happening inside an aerospace and mechanical engineering department, which is its own kind of story, a reminder that the line between engineering and medicine keeps blurring.

For Lubbock, the grant keeps research dollars and serious scientific work anchored on the south end of University Avenue rather than at institutions in Houston or Dallas, where biomedical funding tends to concentrate in Texas. It also signals that Tech is building research credibility well outside its traditional strengths.

NIR-II imaging is still an emerging field, and a five-year runway gives Srivastava's lab real time to push it forward.