Lung cancer is currently the first major cancer that causes the human death. A lung, containing many alveolus, has a very low proton density, so it can not be imaged using the traditional proton MRI. CT and X-ray can be used to image the lungs, however, these techniques are radioactive and can only obtain the structure information of the lungs.

As an inert gas, ₁₂₉Xe is endowed with high selectivity by functionalized cage molecular, which bridges the ultra high sensitivity of optically-pumped NMR technique to the MRI molecular imaging. We are focused on the broadening of the application range of the Xenon based molecular sensor and even higher NMR sensitivity by further modification of the sensor and development of new NMR/MRI pulse method.

The ₁₂₉Xe hyperpolarizer can produce hyperpolarized ₁₂₉Xe gas by the way of spin-exchange optical pumping with high polarization (~3-5 orders of magnitude than the thermal polarization) and high productivity (>0.6 L/h). Hyperpolarized ₁₂₉Xe gas should be used in the lung and brain MRI for the human and other animals. Based on its special feature, the gas also can be developed in the biosensor.

At present, NMR spectrometers use the radiofrequency (RF) coils for detecting NMR signals. Due to Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction, this method's sensitivity depends badly on the frequency of NMR signal, and it has a poor efficiency of conversion from RF energy to the current or voltage signals in RF coils...

Multimodal molecular imaging can offer a synergistic improvement of diagnostic ability over a single imaging modality. A combination of multifunctional molecular probes such as biomolecules, polymers, and nanoparticles continue to increase functionality for in vivo multimodal imaging and therapeutic agents.