technique for viewing cells and tissues in 3D tagged posts

Gold nanorods within the blood vessels of a mouse ear appear green. The lower right shows vessels within a tumor that lies under the skin. Credit: de la Zerda lab

The technique, called MOZART (for MOlecular imaging and characteriZation of tissue noninvasively At cellular ResoluTion), could one day allow scientists to detect tumors in the skin, colon or esophagus, or even to see the abnormal blood vessels that appear in the earliest stages of macular degeneration – a leading cause of blindness. The technique could allow doctors to monitor how an otherwise invisible tumor under the skin is responding to treatment, or to understand how individual cells break free from a tumor and travel to distant sites.

A technique exists for peeking into a live tissue several millimeters under the skin, rev...