The top causes of death worldwide, ischemic heart diseases and stroke, together with another major source of illness, that is cancer, require proper imaging of blood vessels. A team formed by the Center for Nanoparticle Research, within the Institute for Basic Science, in collaboration with scientists at Anhui Provincial Hospital and Seoul National University Hospital, have tested a new non-toxic contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) that could be superior to the current mainstream dye, gadolinium. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, this highly promising contrast agent was successful on dogs, rabbits and monkeys.