ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of molecular imaging techniques and its present and future potential in personalized medicine, with special a focus on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach. Nanoscale-MRI is a new technique that promises to bring the resolution of MRI measurements, normally limited to tens of micrometers, down to the nanometric scale, making measurements of single-biomolecule MR spectra a tangible aspiration. Magnetic nanoprobes have a strong potential for improving the performance of cancer-related MRI, as contrast agents for MRI relying on magnetic nanoparticles can act as probes for imaging specific tumors. The understanding of the physical-chemical processes of magnetism and the latest spectacular developments in magnetic data storage are both underpinned by magnetic imaging. The ability to image bio-magnetic structures inside cells with a high resolution of 400 nm has been demonstrated in magnetotactic bacteria in ambient conditions by placing them on a nanometric layer array of nitrogen-vacancy centers on a diamond surface.
