Abstract
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a non-destructive and non-invasive visualizing method, and has been widely used in clinical medicine and biological studies. Combining MRI with recent developments of molecular and cellular biology together with genetically modified animals is now opening up a new era of MRI, where various biological information, rather than only morphological shape, can be obtained in vivo at cellular and sub-cellular level by sophisticatedly designed MR reporter systems. This short review starts with a brief description of the basic concept of MRI and introduces recent topics.
