<p>Extremely interesting stuff...</p>
<p>Nanoscale magnets in the form of iron-containing molecules might be used to improve the contrast between healthy and diseased tissue in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—as long as the concentration of nanomagnets is carefully managed—according to a new report* by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators. Molecular nanomagnets are a new class of MRI contrast agents that may offer significant advantages, such as versatility in design, over the compounds used today.
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NIST works with Florida State University to make single-molecule magnets less than five nanometers (nm) in diameter, and works with the University of Colorado at Boulder to make nanocrystals in the 10-50 nm range. The agency is pioneering methods for manipulating and measuring the magnetic properties of these compounds and is developing instrumentation for understanding how contrast agents work and how to control contrast properties. Researchers correlate the measured properties to the observed MRI response under non-clinical conditions using imagers at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. The information gained is fed back into recipes for making even better nanomagnets. The work described in the new paper was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
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For the entire article see: <a href="http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb2007_0201.htm#magnets%5B/url%5D">http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb2007_0201.htm#magnets</a></p>