Apr. 1, 2008, a team of researchers  from Stanford’s School of Medicine announced they had developed a new type of imaging system that can illuminate tumors in living subjects – getting pictures with a precision of nearly one-trillionth of a meter. This technique, called Raman spectroscopy, expanded the available toolbox for the field of molecular imaging.

A clinical trial was planned to test the gold nanoparticles in humans for possible use in conjunction with a colonoscopy to indicate early-stage colorectal cancer.  The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.