Researchers at Purdue University have created magnetically responsive gold nanostars that may offer a new approach to biomedical imaging. The nanostars gyrate when exposed to a rotating magnetic field and can scatter light to produce a pulsating or "twinkling" effect. This twinkling allows them to stand out more clearly from noisy backgrounds such as those found in biological tissue. Alexander Wei, Ph.D., and Kenneth Ritchie, Ph.D., M.Sc., led the team that created the new gyromagnetic imaging method. The work appears in a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. [More]

Hologic, Inc. has announced the publication of the first of its kind study evaluating the impact of fetal fibronectin (fFN) testing among both symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women at risk for preterm birth. The study, "Does fetal fibronectin testing change patient management in women at risk of preterm labour?" by researchers at King's College, London, England appears in the on-line version of the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. [More]

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago's Brain Tumor Center have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles bonded to soft biological material. [More]

In the political minefield of healthcare reform, medical imaging has emerged as a microcosm of this contentious debate. Congress has been charged with a high stakes, high wire balancing act: to create a bill preserving quality and access while trimming unethical and unnecessary spending. Medical imaging represents such a challenge, with its undeniable benefits tainted by inappropriate use. [More]

A new material developed at the University of Virginia - an oxygen nanosensor that couples a light-emitting dye with a biopolymer - simplifies the imaging of oxygen-deficient regions of tumors. Such tumors are associated with increased cancer aggressiveness and are particularly difficult to treat. [More]

In order to combine forces on expanding CAD technology, Merge Healthcare Incorporated, a leading health IT solutions provider, and Confirma, Inc., the largest privately-held developer of computer assisted detection (CAD) software for medical imaging, announce that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Merge to acquire Confirma in an all-stock transaction. This acquisition brings Confirma’s patented and proven technologies to Merge’s multiple market channels and international markets, and provides a mechanism to expand adoption of this important technology. [More]

Noninvasive imaging (MRI) may aid physicians in the early diagnosis, staging and treatment of diabetes, according to a study performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. This is the first study of its kind to apply noninvasive imaging techniques to diabetes research. [More]

In the first study of its kind, researchers at Saint Louis University are recruiting patients for a clinical trial that will use cutting-edge imaging equipment to map the brain injuries of combat veterans and civilians, aiming to better understand the nature of their injuries. [More]

Brain cancer is among the deadliest of cancers. It's also one of the hardest to treat. Imaging results are often imprecise because brain cancers are extremely invasive. Surgeons must saw through the skull and safely remove as much of the tumor as they can. Then doctors use radiation or chemotherapy to destroy cancerous cells in the surrounding tissue. [More]

A new chemical imaging technique could one day help in the fight against atherosclerosis, suggests research published in the August 2009 edition of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. [More]

Nanoparticles are being developed to perform a wide range of medical uses - imaging tumors, carrying drugs, delivering pulses of heat. Rather than settling for just one of these, researchers at the University of Washington have combined two nanoparticles in one tiny package. [More]

The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Hybridyne Imaging Technologies, Inc., of Toronto, Canada, have won a 2009 R&D 100 Award for developing a compact gamma camera for high-resolution imaging of prostate cancer. [More]

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel way to monitor in real time the behavior of the TB bacterium in mouse lungs noninvasively pinpointing the exact location of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The new monitoring system is expected to speed up what is currently a slow and cumbersome process to test the safety and efficacy of various TB drug regimens and vaccines in animals. Plans are already under way for developing a similar system to monitor TB disease in humans. [More]

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a "prototype camera-phone mounted with a microscope" that can "magnify and photograph blood or saliva samples" for diagnosing diseases, the Canadian Press/Google.com reports. [More]

The development of the brain proceeds a little like the European settlement of North America. The earliest pioneers settled on the east coast with subsequent waves of settlers forming communities further and further westward. In cortical regions of the developing brain, generations of young neurons undergo a staged migration as well, with the earliest-born cells staying relatively close to their birthplace and subsequent generations traveling further, ultimately stratifying into six neuronal layers in the mature brain. Now, for the first time, imaging studies have identified the "motors" that propel a unique form of cell migration that creates these layers that [More]