Simone Schürle shows two distinct strategies to control magnetotactic bacteria

Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle published new work with her team that is featured on the cover of Advanced Functional Materials magazine. In the paper, the researchers lay out the two most feasible strategies to use magnetic actuation to wirelessly control the movement of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) in order to deliver drugs to specific locations inside the human body. The work studies the use of MTB as a living, self‐replicating ferrofluid for improved fluidic transport via magnetically coerced rotation.

To clarify the mechanistic role of interactions with boundaries in transport, the scientists developed a computational model and validated it experimentally. In applying this model, the researchers are able to predict two distinct and feasible magnetic control strategies: a rotating gradient field that generates directional flow despite boundaries that promote flow in opposing directions and a magnetostatic gating field that enables spatially selective actuation.

The advantageous properties identified for MTB open a design space for these strategies to be realized.

Read the news on Advanced Science News

Read the paper on Advanced Functional Materials