Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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SYMM: Symposium Magnetism and Medicine

SYMM 1: Magnetism and Medicine

SYMM 1.5: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 11:30–12:00, H1

Recent Developments in Healthcare Biomagnetics — •Quentin Pankhurst — Director, Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS

Healthcare biomagnetics - the sensing, moving and heating of magnetic nanoparticles in vitro or in the human body - is a rapidly changing field that is attracting a great deal of interest worldwide. It offers the potential to develop safe and convenient alternatives for a diverse range of therapeutic and diagnostic healthcare applications, using injectable materials of proven safety and reliability. In doing so, it makes use of the three fundamental action-at-a-distance properties of magnetic materials - their ability to act as remote sensors, mechanical actuators, and heat sources. The versatility of the field is leading to the emergence of multi-modal applications, combining two or more of the sensing-moving-heating properties in the same product. Similarly, certain applications are now entering or are close to beginning Phase I/II clinical trials, or in the case of in vitro products, are already entering the marketplace. In this lecture some recent developments in the field will be described and discussed.