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 Researchers funded under the Bio-Magnetic Interfacing Concepts (BioMagnetICs) Program have been successful in demonstrating the utility of nanoscale magnetics as a portable, robust, and highly sensitive transduction mechanism for monitoring and controlling biological activity at the cellular and, ultimately, single molecule level.
Living cells and tissues exhibit an extraordinary range of functionalities including highly selective biochemical sensing (even in chemically noisy environments), protein synthesis, information processing, and color change. Recent developments in biotechnology offer the promise of exploiting these functionalities for sensing, diagnostic, therapeutic, and other DoD and commercial applications. However, exploitation of these functionalities in devices that can be taken out of a laboratory environment will require the development of biochemical signal transduction mechanisms that are robust, portable, and highly reliable in noisy environments. A transduction mechanism based on a bio-magnetic interface would meet these requirements and offers solutions to outstanding technical issues that continue to keep many innovative developments in biotechnology from being fielded for DoD use.
The BioMagnetICs Program has focused on the development and demonstration of several core capabilities that facilitate the demonstration of a robust, magnetics-based bio-molecular signaling transduction mechanism. These core capabilities include the following: (1) novel, biocompatible ferrofluids, or magnetic “tags,” with superior magnetic properties capable of attaching to single bio-molecules and cells with a high degree of specificity; (2) bio-compatible, high-sensitivity magnetic sensors capable of detecting single magnetic nanoparticles with 100 nm or less diameters; and (3) high-density magnetic tweezers that are bio-compatible and capable of manipulating single magnetic nanoparticles, attached to biomolecules, with nanoscale precision. DSO is now considering how the significant progress of DARPA BioMagnetICs researchers in demonstrating these core capabilities may ultimately be exploited in future DoD diagnostic, therapeutic, and sensor applications.
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