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Barth van Rossum, Leif Schroeder (Leibniz-Institut fuer Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Berlin, Germany)
Cover image for "Chemical Science" (October 2015 issue). The paper reports on the development of novel MRI contrast agents (so-called “biosensors”) for Xe-MRI-based diagnostic imaging that provide very high specificity and sensitivity. In the “hyper-CEST technique”, hyperpolarized Xe is combined with chemical exchange saturation transfer. An integral part is a molecular host that traps the xenon. The detection relies on the principle that Xe is only trapped temporarily and hosts are searched with faster exchange rates compared to what people used so far. The work contrasts the slow exchange of the cryptophane-A cage (displayed as the birdcage) to the 100-fold faster exchange offered by cucurbituril (displayed as the pumpkin). The new host described in the paper is cucurbituril, a molecule named after its pumpkin-like shape (this is actually how they got their name - pumpkins belong to the botanical family of ‘curcubita’). Since the work was published around Halloween, the idea to make a connection between the scientific work, a pumkin and Halloween almost naturally arose.