Bio-Magnets for DoD Applications

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are capable of biomineralizing crystalline single domain magnetic oxides and sulfides. MTB perform this synthesis inside of well-defined chambers attached to their cell wall called magnetosomes. Magnetosomes are phospholipid vesicles which assemble in chains inside MTB and allow the magnetic oxides to align into a self-assembled bar magnet inside the bacteria. These nano-scale bar magnets allow MTB to align with the earth’s magnetic field allowing the bacteria to thrive in natural aqueous environments as they live in a microaerophilic environment called the oxic/anoxic zone. This presentation will focus on progress regarding using these bio-synthesized magnetic particles for Department of Defense applications.