Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-29

Studies in nanoscale magnetism: Core/shell magnetic nano-architectures in biology and materials science

Objective

The project will focus on two areas of research in iron-based systems of biotechnological interest:
1) Nanomagnetism of tissue and recombinant wild-type and mutant ferritins; and
2) Nanomagnetism of silica coated magnetic particle/quantum dot (MP/QD) (-Fe 2O3 /CdSe) hybrids; and, -Fe2O3 solid-silica core-mesoporous silica shell nano-architectures.

These systems are of interest due to their broad areas of application in materials, biology and medicine; and as experimental model systems for fundamental studies in magnetism. Magnetic measurements (SQUID) and high and low field Mössbauer spectroscopy, over a wide range of temperature and applied magnetic fields, will probe dynamic magnetic processes in these systems. The process of biomineralization of inorganic compounds on organic substrates in biology is at the centre of nanoscience and nanotechnology that seek to emulate nature in the production of new materials. The rigid molecular template of ferritin is the prototypical system for iron biomineralization research, catalysing space-confined iron nucleation at the nanoscale.

The magnetic properties of ferritin have inspired the fast growing field of clinical and medical applications of magnetic carriers (MRI enhancement, targeted drug delivery, cancer hyperthermia therapy, and magnetic relaxation switches for DNA and virus detection, etc.) leading to an intense international effort for the production of bio-compatible and bio-functionalised magnetic core/shell nanostructures.

As proposed here, silica encapsulation of nanoparticles provides for water-solubility, biocompatibility and easy surface modification for bio-conjugation. In addition, ferritin and its closely related protein, haemosiderin, are implicated in hemoglobin disorder associated diseases, such as - and ß- thalassemia, a genetic disorder prevalent in the Mediterranean.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP6-2005-MOBILITY-10
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH "DEMOKRITOS"
EU contribution
No data
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0