Magnetoactic Bacteria Delivers Drugs to Tumors Hypoxic Locations
November 22, 2016 | Terry Sharrer
In 1993, researchers found an unusual micorganism in the waters of Rhode Island’s Petaquamscuff estuary. It was unusual in that its swimming oriented to the Earth’s magnetic field. This was Magnetococcus marinus (MC-1 strain). The organism is able to biomineralize iron oxide crystals into a string of magnets, and bioengineers at three universities in Montreal have been able to link drug-loaded nanoliposomes to bacteria for delivery to malignant tumors. Moreover, they found that the bacteria swam along magnetic field lines toward the low oxygen regions of the cancer. MORE
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