Magnetic bacteria and their unique superpower attract researchers

Magnetic bacteria and their unique superpower attract researchers

Andy Tay

After further tests and observations, Blakemore confirmed the bacteria were reacting to magnetism. He published a landmark paper in the journal Science in 1975 introducing magnetotactic bacteria to the wider world. Later, researchers realized that another scientist, Salvatore Bellini, had previously discovered magnetotactic bacteria, but his work received scant attention because it hadn’t been archived.

In the decades since, scientists have continued to study how these tiny magnetic creatures behave. Of course it’s just cool to learn more about these unique single-celled organisms. But researchers like me are also figuring out ways to harness their magnetic properties in medical and other engineering applications.

Magnetotactic bacteria have useful applications even without genetic tweaking.

Researchers have used these bacteria as microrobots for delivering drugs and for removing toxic metals from water. The magnetic nanoparticles they synthesize have also been used in biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery and killing cancer cells via generated heat, called hyperthermia.

It could be helpful to produce magnetotactic bacteria and magnetosomes on a large scale, particularly the mutants that overproduce magnetic nanoparticles. But scaling up has been difficult so far.