The transport, storage and degradation of macromolecules in cells represent tightly regulated processes that are vital to cellular function. Cells and organisms that are unable to regulate these processes will exhibit deleterious phenotypes such as impaired nervous system or liver function. Developing treatments for such disorders is challenging, due in part to a lack of methods for quantifying specific metabolites within live cells and animals. As such, this work aims to develop a tool with the ability to non-invasively detect cellular metabolites in live cells and animals. To achieve this goal, an optical reporter was engineered using single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Semiconducting SWCNTs exhibit properties that make them ideal materials for the engineering of optical probes. These include fluorescence in the near infrared region of the spectrum which is modulated by the local environment, a lack of photobleaching, and a large Stokes shift. In this work, we developed an optical reporter capable of detecting cellular metabolites and demonstrated its use in live cells. Future work will focus on applying this reporter to study the pathologies of various diseases in vitro and in vivo.