{"id":234480,"date":"2026-04-02T11:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/new-sensor-could-allow-mris-to-see-molecular-level-changes"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:06:27","slug":"new-sensor-could-allow-mris-to-see-molecular-level-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/new-sensor-could-allow-mris-to-see-molecular-level-changes","title":{"rendered":"New sensor could allow MRIs to see molecular-level changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-sensor-could-allow-mris-to-see-molecular-level-changes.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve seen people sliding into the tube of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine on your favorite medical drama, or maybe you\u2019ve been inside one yourself, waiting as the noisy scanner makes images of your brain, heart, bones, or other structures, which doctors use to identify injury or disease.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 1970s, MRIs have been important diagnostic tools, combining a magnetic field and radio waves to produce snapshots of the body\u2019s interior without using ionizing radiation, which can create health risks at higher doses. An MRI can typically capture changes in anatomy, but the molecular-level changes that could further aid understanding of disease have been beyond its reach.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in a new article in <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.aec1211\"><em>Science Advances<\/em><\/a>, University of California, Santa Barbara researchers report the invention of a modular, genetically encoded, protein-based sensor that enables MRI machines to visualize molecular activity inside cells\u2014a development that could transform how scientists study cancer, neurodegeneration, and inflammation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve seen people sliding into the tube of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine on your favorite medical drama, or maybe you\u2019ve been inside one yourself, waiting as the noisy scanner makes images of your brain, heart, bones, or other structures, which doctors use to identify injury or disease. Since the 1970s, MRIs have been [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,1495,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-health","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}