Magnetic nanoclusters exhibiting protein-activated near-infrared fluorescence.

Composite nanoclusters with chemical, magnetic, and biofunctionality offer broad opportunities for targeted cellular imaging. A key challenge is to load a high degree of targeting, imaging, and therapeutic functionality onto stable metal-oxide nanoparticles. Here we report a route for producing magnetic nanoclusters (MNCs) with alkyne surface functionality that can be utilized as multimodal imaging probes.