Glypican-1(GPC-1) is a cell surface glycan that is highly expressed in PDAC, based on which a bimodal imaging probe (Gd-Au-NC-GPC-1 (ref. 42)) was designed for the targeted detection of PDAC; the particles were able to efficiently target pancreatic cancer cells with a high expression of GPC-1, and an intense red fluorescence and a T1 image were detected 30 minutes after the injection into the mice. Here, GPC1 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.