Artificial magnetotactic motion control of Tetrahymena pyriformis using ferromagnetic nanoparticles: A tool for fabrication of microbiorobots

We induce artificial magnetotaxis in Tetrahymena pyriformis, a eukaryotic ciliate, using ferromagnetic nanoparticles and an external time-varying magnetic field. Magnetizing internalized iron oxide particles (magnetite), allows control of the swimming direction of an individual cell using two sets of electromagnets. Real-time feedback control was performed with a vision tracking system, which demonstrated controllability of a single cell. Since the endogenous motility of the cell is combined in one system with artificial magnetotaxis, the motion of artificially magnetotactic T. pyriformis is finely controllable. Thus, artificially magnetotactic T. pyriformis is a promising candidate microrobot for microassembly and transport in microfluidic environments. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3497275]