Magnetic Molecular Imaging

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Magnetic Molecular Imaging (MMI) is a new technology that offers users the ability to not just see, but to also mechanically manoeuvre and stimulate, biomolecular entities on a sub-micron lengthscale, in the presence of a living cell. It opens up possibilities for imaging/assaying cellular response functions, including (1) real-time and real-space assays of ligand-receptor binding strengths on cell membranes, which are of central importance in both pure and applied research, from cell biophysics, through to drug discovery; (2) real-time and real-space assays of cellular and/or biomolecular response to sub-micron scale localise heating and/or mechanical actuation, which may herald a new R&D drive in e.g. thermally assisted therapeutics and multi-modality drug recovery; and (3) the potential for scale-up to high throughput low-cost functional assay devices.