Stanford’s Hongjie Dai has developed a deep-tissue imaging technique that clearly illuminates tumors beneath the skin. It relies on nanoparticles containing erbium, which glows in the infrared. The promising technology has only been tested on mice, so far.
In a study, the technique was used to predict cancer patient response to immunotherapy, and to measure drug response and tumor size after treatment.
Researcher Zhuoran Ma said: “Our approach allows for seeing into an intact mouse brain while conventional approaches see only the scalp”
Researcher Yeteng Zhong said:, “The combined imaging depth, molecular specificity and multiplicity, and spatial and temporal resolution are unattainable by previous techniques.”
This could provide a noninvasive way to identify candidates for drugs with out a biopsy.
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