Tiny geometrically encoded magnetic (“GEM”) sensors might someday help doctors diagnose diseases deep within the body, with the help of standard MRIs and emerging higher resolution imaging equipment.
If you have a tumor or infection developing deep inside your body, your doctor might not catch the problem until it’s big enough to see with standard imaging equipment. But NIST scientists with NIH are developing a tool that could someday detect small signals from cancers and other conditions deep within your tissue, early in the process of forming.
Just one-hundredth as wide as a human hair, the tiny GEMs change shape based on their environment. For example, the presence of a cancer cell can cause slight changes to the pH – the level of acidity or alkalinity – of the surrounding area. Inflammation deep inside tissue can change local pH levels too. Detecting these changes might reveal the presence of an unseen tumor, or show whether an infection has developed around a surgical implant.
