Fifteen Eighty Four

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The last decade has seen a dramatic growth in research on applications of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as evidenced by the increasing numbers of plenary sessions and conferences dedicated to them, such as the biennial “Magnetic Carriers”. Of course researchers interested in any of the many aspects of MNPs will benefit most from attending these meetings and hearing from the pioneers of the field in person. However, as the field of MNPs expands, attending all of these conferences becomes a daunting prospect. In addition the increasing number of research fields discovering uses for MNPs has created a clear need for a handbook to be compiled to act as an interdisciplinary lexicon.

The goal of this monograph is to provide a first point of reference for the design, synthesis and application of MNPs in biosensing and medicine, not only for newcomers, but also for established scientists looking for potentially new applications of their research. This book is written by world leading experts and pioneers including Urs Hafeli for targeted drug delivery, Dennis Bazylinski in the research of magnetotactic bacteria and Paulo Freitas for MR based biosensors, to name but a few.

The eight chapters in this book cover a diverse range of disciplines that together define biomedical applications of MNPs. In Chapter 1 a concise overview of the theory and application of magnetism as well as the properties of magnetic materials and nanoparticles is presented (K.R.A. Ziebeck, A. Ionescu and J. Llandro). Here, the aim is to provide a crash course on magnetism and the concepts and equations governing magnetic materials and experimental techniques. In Chapter 2 the synthesis of MNPs is described (C.J. Serna and co-workers). In this chapter a detailed practical guide is given on the best strategies for synthesizing MNPs. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each synthesis strategy are examined to enable the correct selection for the desired application.

In Chapter 3 on magnetic nanoparticle functionalization (J.J. Palfreyman) a comprehensive guide to coating and functionalizing MNPs and carriers for biomedical applications is provided. In Chapter 4 on manipulating MNPs (U.O. Hafeli, C.L. Chien and D. Fan) the application of nanoparticles in targeted medicine is reviewed. These applications include control of MNPs for the targeted delivery of therapeutics to sites of disease and magnetic hyperthermia.

Chapter 5 is on modeling the capture of MNPs from flow (N.J. Darton, B. Hallmark and D. Pearce). In this chapter a method of developing a robust model for predicting magnetic nanoparticle behavior in applied magnetic fields in the body is presented. In Chapter 6, sensing of MNPs by diverse magnetic sensors is described by the pioneers of their respective fields, i.e. Adarsh Sandhu et al. for Hall effect sensors, Paulo Freitas et al. for MR based sensors and Galina Kurlyandskaya for GMI sensors. This chapter details the underlying physical principles that affect the detection and imaging of MNPs in a number of biomedical sensing applications.

In Chapter 7 N. Lee and T. Hyeon investigate the design of nanoparticles for contrast agents in MRI. In this chapter the optimal properties of magnetic nanoparticles for application in the medical imaging area of MRI are described. Finally, in Chapter 8, magnetotactic bacteria are reviewed (D.A. Bazylinski and D. Trubitsyn). This chapter describes the occurrence of magnetic nanoparticles in nature and how these biological systems can produce endogenous magnetic nanoparticles.

Article courtesy of Nicholas J. Darton, Adrian Ionescu and Justin Llandro (Eds.)