Special Issue "Magnetic Nanoparticles"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Jon Dobson
Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine, Keele University, Thornburrow Drive, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 7QB, United Kingdom
Website: http://www.keele.ac.uk/research/istm/jdobson.html
E-Mail:

Dear Colleagues,

Magnetic micro- and nanoparticles have been used in biological and biomedical investigations since the 1920s when Heilbrunn and Seifritz first used the forces on these particles to examine the rheological properties of cells. Since that time, myriad uses for these particles have arisen and much progress has been made in synthesis techniques and bio-functionalization. Superparamagnetic iron oxides are routinely used in the clinic today as MRI contrast agents and are found in many pathology laboratories around the world where they are used to tag cells for cell separation and immunoassay. More recent, novel uses include binding to specific cell receptors to control cell function and stem cell differentiation for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, as well as magnetic targeting for drug and gene delivery and magnetic fluid hyperthermia. This issue will cover a variety of topics related to the use of MNPs in biomedicine and examine both novel synthesis and functionalization techniques as well as their current and future uses in biomedical research, diagnostics and therapy.

Jon Dobson, Ph.D.
Guest Editor

Related Special Issue

Magnetic Nanoparticles in International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Submission

All papers should be submitted to materials@mdpi.org. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special issue website.

Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International. Review manuscripts: Before writing their manuscripts, potential authors of review articles should forward the title and a short abstract to materials@mdpi.org. We will then provide feedback on the suitability of the topic.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Article Processing Charges (APC) will be waived for well prepared manuscripts of invited papers. For the first two volumes of this new journal the APC are of 300 CHF (or 550 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections).

Starting 1 January 2010, Article Processing Charges are of 800 CHF per accepted article for Materials.

• magnetic nanoparticles
• biomedical
• superparamagnetic
• tissue engineering
• regenerative medicine

Feature Papers

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Polymer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles for Use in Triggered Drug Delivery
Authors: D. H. Kim^#, L. M. Blue and C. S. Brazel
Affiliations: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0203, USA; E-Mail: cbrazel@eng.ua.edu (C. S. B.)
^# Currently at Argonne National Laboratories, Argonne, IL, USA
Abstract: Iron oxide and cobalt ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were incorporated within thermally-sensitive hydrogels to determine the mechanical response of the gels to a magnetothermal trigger. The effective, Néel and Brownian relaxation times of the CoFe₂O₄ MNPs imbedded in poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide) hydrogels were analyzed. Heating the magnet-loaded hydrogels using an AC magnetic field induced gel shrinkage as the temperature rose over the lower critical solution temperature of the polymer. The thermal responsive behavior was determined as a function of magnetic field strength and application frequency as well as MNP content and hydrogel composition. These magnetic hydrogels offer the opportunity to remotely trigger the release of an anti-cancer agent simultaneously with therapeutic heating using an AC magnetic field.

Regular Papers

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Magnetic Biotransport: Analysis and Applications
Author: E. P. Furlani
Affiliation: Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA; E-Mail: efurlani@buffalo.edu
Abstract: Magnetic particles with biofunctional coatings are finding increasing use in bioapplications, especially as carrier particles for biomaterials such as proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and whole cells etc. These particles can be designed to bind with a target biomaterial, and once bound they enable the controlled transport, separation and immobilization of the biomaterial using an external magnetic field. In this paper we discuss the use of magnetic nanoparticles as transport agents in various bioapplications. We review the fundamental physics governing mico- and nanoscale magnetic biotransport, and introduce transport models for predicting particle motion. We demonstrate the transport models via application to various processes including bioseparation, drug delivery and magnetofection.