Iron oxide contrast agents have been combined with magnetic resonance imaging for cell tracking. In this review, we discuss coating properties and provide an overview of ex vivo and in vivo labeling of different cell types, including stem cells, red blood cells, and monocytes/macrophages. Furthermore, we provide examples of applications of cell tracking with iron contrast agents in stroke, multiple sclerosis, cancer, arteriovenous malformations, and aortic and cerebral aneurysms. Attempts at quantifying iron oxide concentrations and other vascular properties are examined. We advise on designing studies using iron contrast agents including methods for validation.

We assess the overall performance of our quantum key distribution (QKD) system implementing the measurement-device-independent (MDI) protocol using components with varying capabilities such as different single-photon detectors and qubit preparation hardware. We experimentally show that superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors allow QKD over a channel featuring 60 dB loss, and QKD with more than 600 bits of secret key per second (not considering finite key effects) over a 16 dB loss channel. This corresponds to 300 and 80 km of standard telecommunication fiber, respectively. We also demonstrate that the integration of our QKD system into FPGAbased hardware (instead of state-of-the-art arbitrary waveform generators) does not impact on its performance. Our investigation allows us to acquire an improved understanding of the trade-offs between complexity, cost and system performance, which is required for future customization of MDI-QKD. Given that our system can be operated outside the laboratory over deployed fiber, we conclude that MDI-QKD is a promising approach to information-theoretic secure key distribution.

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USPIO-MRI is a promising method of rapidly assessing the efficacy of anticancer drugs that stimulate innate immunity.

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