Rohit Bhargava

Rohit Bhargava is the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), serving as Director of the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) and the Tissue Microenvironment Training Program. He holds primary appointment in Bioengineering with joint roles in Mechanical Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemistry. His research focuses on infrared spectroscopic imaging, 3D tumor modeling, and AI-driven diagnostic tools. He pioneered chemical imaging technologies for cancer analysis and developed novel biomedical scaffolds via 3D printing. Rohit earned his B.Tech from IIT Delhi (1996) and PhD from Case Western Reserve University (2000), with NIH postdoctoral training before joining UIUC in 2005.

Education:

• B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (1996)
• Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University (2000)

Research Interests:

Dr. Bhargava’s lab develops infrared chemical imaging systems to analyze tumor microenvironments, cancer biomarkers, and extracellular matrices. Key areas include:

• 3D tumor models using custom 3D printers
• Machine learning for pathology workflow optimization
• Nanoparticle-based imaging agents for cancer detection
• Vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy for molecular structure analysis
• Translational applications in breast, colon, and brain cancer diagnostics

Awards & Grants:

• Abel Bliss Faculty Scholar (UIUC)
• NIH T32 grant (Tissue Microenvironment Training Program)
• NSF Science & Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology

Lab & Collaborations:

His Chemical Imaging & Structures Laboratory (CISL) integrates engineering and medicine to advance digital molecular pathology. Collaborations include the Beckman Institute, Coordinated Science Lab, and Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Current projects address AI-driven diagnostics, label-free histopathology, and microenvironmental biomarker discovery.