Bringing together nanoscience with stem cell and bacterial cell biology this thesis is truly
interdisciplinary in scope. It shows that the creation of superparamagnetic nanoparticles
inside a protein coat followed by chemical functionalisation of the protein surface provides
a novel methodology for cell magnetisation using incubation times as short as one minute.
Crucially stem cell proliferation and multi-lineage differentiation capacity is not impaired
after labelling. Due to the unspecific labelling mechanism this thesis also shows that the
same magnetic protein nanoparticles can be used for rapid bacterial magnetisation. Thus it is
possible to magnetically capture and concentrate pathogens from clinical samples quickly and
highly efficiently.
