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(Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation)
Fluorescent markers for imaging biomolecules have transformed science, but they have a major limitation. Light doesn’t penetrate well through tissue, so biomolecules deeper in the body have remained invisible. Now, a research team at Caltech has developed a way to “hear” molecular processes: tunable acoustic biosensors that can be used to track biological processes pretty much anywhere within the body using ultrasound. The biosensors are balloon-like nanoparticles that vibrate in response to ultrasound waves.
