Press Release / Health and Fitness / Bacteria engineered to produce magnetic nanocrystals

Bacteria engineered to produce magnetic nanocrystals

In 1963 scientists first reported the existence of bacteria that swim toward the North Pole. Since then we’ve learned that these magnetotactic bacteria contain special membrane-bound organelles called magnetosomes that manufacture magnetic nanocrystals within cells. However, the bacterial strains that naturally contain magnetosomes are difficult to culture in the lab C so a recent study aimed to isolate the genes required for magnetosome formation and function in and to express those genes in a more tractable model organism.


In a new Nature Nanotechnology paper, Kolinko et al. report that a minimal cassette of 29 genes can induce magnetosome biosynthesis within the model organism R. rubrum. This is the first report of genetically engineering an organism to sense magnetic fields C with huge implications. Magnetosomes can be readily taken up by other cells, allowing them to be manipulated by electromagnetic fields C for targeted tumor therapies and many other biomedical and industrial applications.

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