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View that cancer with glowing nanoparticles

Tumor nanoparticles

We can only imagine the medical benefits of easily scoping out that troubled cancer-ridden zone, so we're sure more than a few oncologists are doing victory dances at the U Penn's and U Minnesota's invention of an imaging system that uses fluorescent fluorophores inserted into a cell-like nanoparticle delivery system, which can be used to easily image tissue subcutaneously (see right). Which means doctors can more easily see what's going on with the cancer in question, which means chemotherapy could be administered more effectively, which means lives can be saved (and we get the added benefit of giving off near-infrared light when exposed to it). Let's just hope the nanoparticles don't also give you cancer.