Magnetic Nanoparticles for the isolation of pathogens

 

Investigator: Bernhard Friedrich (PhD Student)Bernhard Friedrich

 

Supervisor: Dr. R. Tietze (SEON), Prof. C. Alexiou (SEON), Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini


 

The separation of pathogens from the environment or the body is a challenging task with broad medical implications. In this case sepsis, for example, is a serious inflammatory reaction of the body caused by bacteria, virus, fungi, and parasites. In consequence, it causes multiple organ dysfunctions and even death despite treatment. New approaches to deal with these problems are the use of particles that can be applied in a separation technique to filter bacteria from the blood [1]. Several magnetic particle systems, using iron oxide particles coated with gold, silica, hydroxyapatite or other phases, have gained the interest of the last years.  The aim of this work is to synthesize magnetic nanoparticles (gold, silica, hydroxyapatite) for diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, but also for other applications where there is the need to separate pathogens or toxins from a biological medium. This includes optimization of synthesis ways, like solvothermal synthesis and co-precipitation as well as the development of linker systems using hetero bisphosphonates or natural proteins like antibodies, as linkers to bind pathogens or toxins to the particles. In this case, the interactions of the different particles with biomolecules or cells will be tested. This research project is carried out at the Section of Experimental Oncology and Nanomedicine (SEON), (Head: Prof. Christoph Alexiou), University Hospital Erlangen, in collaboration with the FAU Institute of Biomaterials.

 

[1] Lee, Jung-Jae et al. (2014): Synthetic ligand-coated magnetic nanoparticles for microfluidic bacterial separation from the blood. Nano letters 14 (1), S. 1–5. DOI: 10.1021/nl3047305.