Magnetic nanoparticles in biological vehicles individually characterized for the first time

Imagine a tiny vehicle with a nanomagnetic structure, which can be steered through the human body via external magnetic fields. Arriving at its destination, the vehicle may release a drug, or heat up cancer cells without affecting healthy tissue. Scientists of different disciplines are working on this vision. A multidisciplinary research group at Universidad del País Vasco, Leioa, Spain, explores the talents of so-called magnetotactic bacteria, which have the surprising property of forming magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles inside their cells. These particles, with diameters of around 50 nanometers (100 times smaller than blood cells), arrange, within the bacterium, into a chain. The Spanish team is pursuing the idea of using such "magnetic bacteria" as magnetic hyperthermia agents to treat cancer: Steered to the cancer site, the magnetic nanostructures are to be heated by external fields in order to burn the cancer cells.