Manufacturing man-made magnetosomes: High-throughput in situ synthesis of biomimetic magnetite loaded nanovesicles

Journal article

In this paper we demonstrate a new synthetic method for the production of artificial magnetosomes i.e. lipid coated vesicles containing magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetosomes have considerable potential in biomedical and other nanotechnological applications but current production methods rely upon magnetotactic bacteria which limits the range of sizes and shapes that can be generated as well as the obtainable yield. Here we utilize electrohydrodynamic atomization to form nanoscale liposomes of tunable size followed by electroporation to transport iron into the nano-liposome core resulting in magnetite crystallisation. Using a combination of electron and fluorescence microscopy, dynamic light scattering, Raman spectroscopy and magnetic susceptibility measurements, we show that single-crystals of single-phase magnetite can be precipitated within each liposome, forming a near-monodisperse population of magnetic nanoparticles. For the specific conditions used in this study the mean particle size was 58 nm (±8 nm) but the system offers a high degree of flexibility in terms of both the size and composition of the final product.

Authors: Bakshi, P; Bain, J; Gul, M; Stride, E; Edirisinghe, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Macromolecular Bioscience
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 1555–1561
• Publication date: 2016-08-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-06-29
• DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201600181
• ISSN: 1616-5187
• Keywords: biomimetic; nanoparticles; magnetosomes; electrohydrodynamics; magnetotactic bacteria