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Today, gadolinium ion complexes and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are used routinely as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Nanoparticles of iron oxide 2-6 nm, capped with a passivating non-ionic material, have been shown to produce negative contrast in MRI, whereas gadolinium ion complexes produce positive contrast. We are now designing functionalized rare earth nanocrystals and this material is very promising as positive contrast agent. We have shown that the relaxation properties of this contrast agent have an enhancing capability with respect of MRI signal, compared to the commercially available Gd-DTPA contrast agent. Capping and biofunctionalization of the nanoctrystals are done to increase solubility, reduce the toxicity and increase specificity of the material. This project is performed in collaboration between the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) at the Faculty of Health Science and the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University and the long term goal is to obtain higher resolution, tissue specific images and cell- and molecular imaging. |