Microscale magnetic resonance detectors: a technology roadmap for in vivo metabolomics

摘要

One of the great challenges in biology is to observe, at sufficient detail, the real-timernworkings of the cell. Many methods exist to do cell measurements invasively. For example,rnmass spectrometry has tremendous mass sensitivity but destroys the cell. Molecular taggingrncan reveal exquisite detail using STED microscopy, but is currently neither relevant for arnlarge number of different molecules, nor is it applicable to very small molecules. For markerrnfree non-invasive measurements, only magnetic resonance has sufficient molecularrnspecificity, but the technique suffers from low sensitivity and resolution. In this presentationrnwe will consider the roadmap for achieving in vivo metabolomic measurements with morernsensitivity and resolution. The roadmap will point towards the technological advances that arernnecessary for magnetic resonance microscopy to answer questions relevant to cell biology.