[Seminar] Synthetic biology for magnetic nanoparticles production by Dr. Maiko Furubayashi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Speaker
Maiko Furubayashi, Postdoctoral Associate
Chris Voigt lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are useful in diverse modern technologies such as high-density data storage, next-gen memory device, ferrofluids or many biomedical applications. Magnetotactic bacteria, discovered in the 1970s, can synthesize MNPs inside their cell to use them like a compass to align to the Earth’s geomagnetic field line. These bacterial MNPs have several advantages compared to chemically synthesized MNPs, such as narrow size distributions, high crystal perfections, or greener production process.

Our goal is to design and produce bacterial MNPs with various properties by genetically engineering Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1. The biomineralization process of MNPs are performed by proteins which are encoded in magnetosome gene cluster located on M. magneticum genome. By modifying this DNA-encoded "blue print" of bacterial MNPs from bottom-up, we envision the production of “designer magnetic nanoparticles” which is otherwise difficult to achieve.

In this seminar, I would like to present my past 2 years of efforts toward this goal. First, we have engineered and characterized basic genetic parts for M. magneticum to expand the genetic toolkit for these bacteria. Next, we are now starting to use these genetic tools to engineer the magnetosome-related genes to explore the size/shape of bacterial MNPs. I would also like to discuss the future directions and possibility of manufacturing magnetic or other materials in biological systems.