Lourdes Marcano

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Oviedo

Magnetotactic bacteria have evolved the remarkable capacity to biomineralize chains of magnetite [Fe(II)Fe(III) 2 O 4 ] nanoparticles that align along the geomagnetic field and optimize their navigation in the environment. Mechanisms enabling magnetite formation require the complex action of numerous proteins for iron acquisition, sequestration in...

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are of significant interest for biophysical applications, particularly in cancer treatment. The biomineralized magnetosomes produced by these bacteria are high-quality magnetic nanoparticles that form chains through a highly reproducible natural process. Specifically, Magnetovibrio blakemorei and Magnetospirillum gryphi...

Swirling spin textures, including topologically nontrivial states, such as skyrmions, chiral domain walls, and magnetic vortices, have garnered significant attention within the scientific community due to their appeal from both fundamental and applied points of view. However, their creation, controlled manipulation, and stability are typically cons...

Swirling spin textures, including topologically non-trivial states, such as skyrmions, chiral domain walls, and magnetic vortices, have garnered significant attention within the scientific community due to their appeal from both fundamental and applied points of view. However, their creation, controlled manipulation, and stability are typically con...

Magnetotactic bacteria are envisaged as potential theranostic agents. Their internal magnetic compass, chemical environment specificity and natural motility enable these microorganisms to behave as nanorobots, as they can be tracked and guided towards specific regions in the body and activated to generate a therapeutic response. Here we provide add...

Magnetotactic bacteria Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 have been cultured using three different media: magnetic spirillum growth medium with Wolfe's mineral solution (MSGM + W), magnetic spirillum growth medium without Wolfe's mineral solution (MSGM - W), and flask standard medium (FSM). The influence of the culture medium on the structural, morp...

Epitaxial strain is a useful handle to engineer the physical properties of perovskite oxide materials. Here, we apply it to orthorhombic chromites that are a family of antiferromagnets showing fruitful functionalities as well as strong spin–lattice coupling via antisymmetric exchange interaction along Cr–O–Cr bonds. Using pulsed laser deposition, w...

Correction for ‘Modifying the magnetic response of magnetotactic bacteria: incorporation of Gd and Tb ions into the magnetosome structure’ by E. M. Jefremovas et al. , Nanoscale Adv. , 2022, https://doi.org/10.1039/d2na00094f.

Magnetotactic bacteria Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1 biosynthesise chains of cube-octahedral magnetosomes, which are 40 nm magnetite high quality (Fe3O4) nanoparticles. The magnetic properties of these crystalline magnetite nanoparticles, which can be modified by the addition of other elements into the magnetosome structure (doping), are o...

The main objective of the preparation of the Fe3-xGaxO4 (0.14 ≤ x ≤ 1.35) system was to further the knowledge of the magnetic response of Ga3+-doped magnetite for application as MRI contrast agents. With this purpose, monodisperse nanoparticles between 7 and 10 nm with different amounts of gallium were prepared from an optimized protocol based on t...

The Josephson effect results from the coupling of two superconductors across a spacer such as an insulator, a normal metal or a ferromagnet to yield a phase coherent quantum state. However, in junctions with ferromagnetic spacers, very long-range Josephson effects have remained elusive. Here we demonstrate extremely long-range (micrometric) high-te...

Among iron oxide phases, magnetite (Fe3O4) is often the preferred one for nanotechnological and biomedical applications because of its high saturation magnetization and low toxicity. Although there are several synthetic routes that attempt to reach magnetite nanoparticles (NPs), they are usually referred as “IONPs” (iron oxide NPs) due to the great...

Rashba interfaces yield efficient spin-charge interconversion and give rise to nonreciprocal transport phenomena. Here, we report magnetotransport experiments in few-nanometer-thick films of PdCoO$_2$, a delafossite oxide known to display a large Rashba splitting and surface ferromagnetism. By analyzing the angle dependence of the first- and second...

Magnetic Fluid Hyperthermia mediated by iron oxide nanoparticles is one of the most promising therapies for cancer treatment. Among the different candidates, magnetite and maghemite nanoparticles have revealed to be some of the most promising candidates due to both their performance and their biocompatibility. Nonetheless, up to day, the literature...

The currently existing magnetic hyperthermia treatments usually need to employ very large doses of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and/or excessively high excitation conditions (H × f > 1010 A/m s) to reach the therapeutic temperature range that triggers cancer cell death. To make this anticancer therapy truly minimally invasive, it is crucial the de...

Magnetotactic bacteria are aquatic microorganisms that have the ability to align in the geomagnetic field lines, using a chain of magnetic nanoparticles biomineralized internally (called magnetosomes) as a compass needle. Here we describe the biogenesis of magnetosomes, focusing in the formation of the mineral core. We then discuss the magnetic pro...

Magnetotactic bacteria Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense synthesize cubo-octahedral shaped magnetite nanoparticles, called magnetosomes, with a mean diameter of 40 nm. The high quality of the biosynthesized nanoparticles makes them suitable for numerous applications in fields like cancer therapy, among others. The magnetic properties of magnetite ma...

Magnetotactic bacteria are aquatic microorganisms with the ability to biomineralise membrane-enclosed magnetic nanoparticles, called magnetosomes. These magnetosomes are arranged into a chain that behaves as a magnetic compass, allowing the bacteria to align in and navigate along the Earth’s magnetic field lines. According to the magneto-aerotactic...

Shape anisotropy is of primary importance to understand the magnetic behavior of nanoparticles, but a rigorous analysis in polyhedral morphologies is missing. In this work, a model based on finite element techniques has been developed to calculate the shape anisotropy energy landscape for cubic, octahedral, and truncated-octahedral morphologies. In...

Magnetotactic bacteria are aquatic microorganisms with the ability to biomineralise membrane-enclosed magnetic nanoparticles, called magnetosomes. These magnetosomes are arranged into a chain that behaves as a magnetic compass, allowing the bacteria to align in and navigate along the Earth's magnetic field lines. According to the magneto-aerotactic...

Magnetotactic bacteria are aquatic microorganisms with the ability to biomineralise membrane-enclosed magnetic nanoparticles, called magnetosomes. These magnetosomes are arranged into a chain that behaves as a magnetic compass, allowing the bacteria to align in and navigate along the Earth's magnetic field lines. According to the magneto-aerotactic...

Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense biosynthesize high quality magnetite nanoparticles, called magnetosomes, and arrange them into a chain that behaves like a magnetic compass. Here we perform magnetometry and polarized small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments on a powder of freeze-dried and immobilized M. gryphiswaldense. We confirm that the...

The truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) is applied to extract the underlying 2D correlation functions from small-angle scattering patterns. The approach is tested by transforming the simulated data of ellipsoidal particles and it is shown that also in the case of anisotropic patterns (i.e. aligned ellipsoids) the derived correlation funct...

Manganese/iron ferrite nanoparticles with different Mn2+/3+ doping grades have been prepared by a thermal decomposition optimized approach so as to ascertain the doping effect in magnetic properties and, specially, in the magnetic hyperthermia response. The oxidation state and interstitial position of Mn in the spinel structure has shown to be crit...

Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense biosynthesize high quality magnetite nanoparticles, called magnetosomes, and arrange them into a chain that behaves like a magnetic compass. Here we perform magnetometry and polarized small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments on a powder of freeze-dried and immobilized \textit{M. gryphiswaldense}. We confir...

We apply the truncated singular value decomposition (SVD) to extract the underlying 2D correlation functions from small-angle scattering patterns. We test the approach by transforming the simulated data of ellipsoidal particles and show that also in case of anisotropic patterns (i.e. aligned ellipsoids) the derived correlation functions correspond...

Magnetotactic bacteria synthesize a chain of magnetic nanoparticles, called magnetosome chain, used to align and swim along the geomagnetic field lines. In particular, Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense biomineralize magnetite, Fe3O4. Growing this species in a Co-supplemented medium Co-doped magnetite is obtained, tailoring in this way the magnetic p...

Magnetotactic bacteria synthesize a chain of magnetic nanoparticles, called magnetosome chain, used to align and swim along the geomagnetic field lines. In particular, Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense biomineralize magnetite, Fe 3 O 4. Growing this species in a Co-supplemented medium, Co-doped magnetite is obtained, tailoring in this way the magnet...

Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense is a microorganism with the ability to biomineralize magnetite nanoparticles, called magnetosomes, and arrange them into a chain that behaves like a magnetic compass. Rather than straight lines, magnetosome chains are slightly bent, as evidenced by electron cryotomography. Our experimental and theoretical results su...

Background: The magnetosome biosynthesis is a genetically controlled process but the physical properties of the magnetosomes can be slightly tuned by modifying the bacterial growth conditions. Methods: We designed two time-resolved experiments in which iron-starved bacteria at the mid-logarithmic phase are transferred to Fe-supplemented medium t...

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are widely investigated due to their potential use in various applications, ranging from electronics to biomedical devices. The magnetic properties of MNPs are strongly dependent on their size and shape (i.e., morphology), thus appropriate tools to investigate their morphology are fundamental to understand the physics...

It is generally accepted that the mineral core synthesized by ferritin-like proteins consists of a ferric oxy-hydroxide mineral similar to ferrihydrite in the case of horse spleen ferritin (HoSF) and an oxy-hydroxide-phosphate phase in plant and prokaryotic ferritins. The structure reflects a dynamic process of deposition and dissolution, influence...

It is generally accepted that the mineral core synthesized by ferritin-like proteins consists of a ferric oxy-hydroxide mineral similar to ferrihydrite in the case of horse spleen ferritin (HoSF) and an oxy-hydroxide-phosphate phase in plant and prokaryotic ferritins. The structure reflects a dynamic process of deposition and dissolution, influence...

We have prepared spherical nanoparticles (MNPs) of FeNi and Ni by the method of the electric explosion of wire and fabricated series of polymer/MNPs and polymer/MNPs/FeNi film composites aiming to develop a technology of fabrication of magnetic composites.

Magnetic composites with nickel nanoparticles synthesized by the method of the electrical explosion of wire were prepared with acrylic copolymer containing 95 wt. % of butylacrylate and 5 wt. % of methacrylic acid. Two series of composites were made with Ni content covering the range from 5 to 90 wt. % and differing in the degree of aggregation. In...

Fe45Ni55 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were obtained by the electric explosion of wire technique. FeNi MNPs/copolymer of 95 wt% butylacrylate and 5 wt% methacrylic acid composites in the range of 5-90 wt% of MNPs were prepared with focus on their microwave applications. Interaction between the MNPs and polymeric matrix, structure, their magnetic pr...