An iron tracer that finds heart scarring — and slows it down while it is there

When heart muscle is damaged, repair tissue called collagen can keep piling up until the heart stiffens — a process called fibrosis, and a leading road to heart failure. In San Sebastián, Spain, researchers led by Aitziber Cortajarena at CIC biomaGUNE built a kinder MRI tracer: tiny iron clusters wrapped in a designer protein. In lab-grown human heart tissue, reported in Advanced Functional Materials, the tracer gathered in scarred areas, lit them up as brightly as today's gadolinium dyes — which some patients cannot safely receive — and, remarkably, slowed the scarring itself. One material that both diagnoses and treats is still years from patients, but the direction is set.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation