Researcher Aims to Understand One of Nature's Strangest Secrets: Magnetotactic Bacteria

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) — Ph.D. researcher Amy Monnington is making a key contribution to research that will unlock the understanding of one of the most intriguing processes in nature by looking into the process of magnetotactic bacteria.  These organisms develop membrane-encapsulated nano-particles known as magnetosomes which allow bacteria to orient themselves along the earth’s magnetic field lines in order to migrate to more favourable environments.

Magnetosomes contain the iron-oxygen composite, magnetite, which is also found in more complex organisms, such as honey bees, salmon and pigeons, and presumed to play a key role in navigation and now, the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, is working on a project which aims for greater understanding of magnetite formation. 

Although magnetotactic bacteria were first discovered in 1975, the production of their magnetite crystals is still not fully understood.

Now, the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Huddersfield is working on a project which aims for greater understanding of magnetite formation.  It is the basis of Amy Monnington’s PhD thesis and the project, supervised by Dr David Cooke.

She recently presented a paper – Understanding the Biomineralisation of Magnetite within Magnetotactic Bacteria – at the CCP5 Conference that took place at the University of Huddersfield and after graduation has been invited to join the biomineralisation research project.

Its original contribution is to discover how magnetite crystals form within magnetotactic bacteria, with the ultimate aim of understanding biomineralisation processes as a whole to enable commercial production of magnetite and other biominerals.

Numerous commercial applications for magnetite nano-particles have previously been considered, with their use as contrast agents for MRI and tumour specific drug carriers in development.

However, such applications are not commercially viable at present, says Amy.

“This is because the mechanisms of biomineralisation are not completely known, thus the production of magnetite on an industrial scale is time-consuming and costly,” she explains.

“We are trying to understand the processes in order to be able to produce the particles more economically.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121015085419.htm

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Huddersfield.

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