DKFZ Uses Hyperpolarized Xenon as a Quantum Sensor for Free Gadolinium Ions, the Metal in MRI Contrast Agents: What the Sensors & Diagnostics Study by Gerbeth, Werner and Schröder Shows
What the DKFZ measured with hyperpolarized xenon, and why free gadolinium matters to MRI
Quentir Medicine Monitor
Evidence-based insights for quantum medicine.
Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg have used the nuclear spin of hyperpolarized xenon to measure free gadolinium ions in laboratory solutions down to the micromolar range. Gadolinium is the metal that gives contrast in just under half of all MRI scans, according to the DKFZ, where a protective chelate molecule holds it, and the new method detects the metal as a free ion outside such a shell.
The work appeared in the open-access journal Sensors & Diagnostics in July 2026, and the DKFZ announced it in a press release on 29 October 2026, carried in English by Medical Xpress the same day. The detection runs through HyperCEST nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique built on xenon trapped in molecular cages, and the DKFZ says it can distinguish free gadolinium from the chelated form used in contrast agents. Following gadolinium from contrast agents into wastewater, or checking agents in the clinic, is a potential application the team describes, and the study has not yet tested it.
Leif Schröder, who heads the DKFZ Department of Translational Molecular Imaging and led the study, said the interaction between gadolinium, xenon and the cage allowed more sensitive detection than earlier research using MRI. The DKFZ also stresses that this sensitivity holds under the conditions of the experiment, in laboratory solutions.
The peer-reviewed article, titled "Detection of Gd3+ via HyperCEST NMR in a competition assay using cryptophane-A monoacid", fills pages 1195 to 1203 of volume 5 of the journal, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry under a Creative Commons non-commercial license. Hannah Gerbeth is the lead author. She and Schröder hold appointments at the DKFZ, the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg partner site of the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK). Patrick Werner is listed at the DKFZ and at the Department of Radiology of Charité in Berlin.
Schröder has worked on this family of methods for two decades. In 2006 he was first author of a Science paper with Alexander Pines and colleagues at Berkeley that introduced a targeted biosensor read out through hyperpolarized xenon, the approach that became known as HyperCEST. The new study turns the same physics toward a metal ion that radiology departments handle every day.
The DKFZ gives two reasons for the work. Gadolinium leaves patients through the kidneys and ends up in wastewater, where it stays inside its chelate cage over the long term. Schröder said the team sees "an urgent need to lay the foundations for new and sensitive analytical methods" that can follow gadolinium in the environment, from contrast agents and from industrial processes alike.