Rebeca Romero Aburto PhD is an Imagion Biosystems research collaborator and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. As an invited speaker at November 2016’s meeting of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Bethesda, MD, Dr. Romero presented her work on advanced magnetic nanoparticle surface modifications. Data presented show a new micellar iron oxide nanoparticle that can accommodate a variety of cancer-targeting antibodies, is stable in biological media including human plasma, and persists in mammalian circulation for two hours — long enough for nanoparticles to encounter and attach to cancer cells, if present, for specific, sensitive tumor detection.