Published in Chemistry World, 20 Mar 2009
Scientists in the US have created nano-scale medical probes that are visible via both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical microscopy. They say that the probes, which contain gold nanorods and magnetic particles, can be easily tracked as they target cancerous tissue.
The last few years has seen a lot of research focused on medical probes that can simultaneously target, track and treat diseased parts of the human body. One tracking option is to base the probes on magnetic particles, which show up clearly in MRI scans. The magnetic fields of MRI penetrate deep into tissue, but the technique is not terribly precise. An option that provides more accuracy is to base the probes on luminescent particles such as gold, as the light emitted from these particles is visible to optical microscopy. However, optical microscopy also has a drawback in that it can only see things close to the surface of the body. […]
The rest of this article is available here.