Functional ferrogels: from magnetic biosensors to regenerative medicine*

G.V. Kurlyandskaya, A.P. Safronov, F.A. Blyakhman, S.V. Shcherbinin N.A. Buznikov
Universidad del País Vasco UPV-EHU, Bilbao, Spain; Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, RF; Ural State Medical University, Ekaterinburg, RF; Institute of Electrophysics UD RAS, Ekaterinburg, RF; Gazprom VNIIGAZ, Razvilka, Moscow Region, RF

In-tissue embedded magnetic nanoparticle (MNPs) detection is one of the most interesting cases for biomedical applications. Biological (especially tumor) tissues present a variety of morphologies. Ferrogels (FG) are magnetic composites that are widely used in the area of biomedical engineering and biosensing. We propose to substitute biological samples and use synthetic ferrogel to mimic main properties of the living systems at the stage of the development of magnetic biosensor prototypes. Natural tissue requires tight protocol of storage/testing but synthetic hydrogels are less demanding to test conditions.
In order to make FG widely available there is a need in the development of synthesis techniques with enhanced size of a batch. Electrophysical techniques of electric explosion of the wire or laser target evaporation (LTE) are suitable for this objective.
We have developed magnetic biosensor prototype for the detection of mesoscopic distributions of magnetic nanoparticles using magnetoimpedance phenomenon. Prototypes with FeNi/Ti or FeNi/Cu multilayered elements were designed and the stray fields of embedded LTE MNPs were measured. A model for MI response based on a solution of Maxwell equations was developed.
We discuss the possibility of creation of a new generation of drug delivery systems for magnetic field assisted delivery, positioning and biosensing.

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