Physics Commons^™

Silicon-based nanoparticles are ideally suited for use as biomedical imaging agents due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and simple surface chemistry that facilitates drug loading and targeting. A method of hyperpolarizing silicon particles using dynamic nuclear polarization, which increases magnetic resonance imaging signals by several orders-of-magnitude through enhanced nuclear spin alignment, has recently been developed to allow silicon particles to function as contrast agents for in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. The enhanced spin polarization of silicon lasts significantly longer than other hyperpolarized agents (tens of minutes, whereas <1  min for other species at room temperature), allowing a wide range of potential …

Many existing and emerging techniques of interrogating metabolism in brain cancer are at an early stage of development. A few clinical trials that employ these techniques are in progress in patients with brain cancer to establish the clinical efficacy of these techniques. It is likely that in vivo metabolomics and metabolic imaging is the next frontier in brain cancer diagnosis and assessing therapeutic efficacy.