Many types of biosensors employ magnetic nanoparticles (diameter = 5–300 nm) or magnetic particles (diameter = 300–5,000 nm) which have been surface functionalized to recognize specific molecular targets. Here we cover three types of biosensors that employ different biosensing principles, magnetic materials, and instrumentation. The first type consists of magnetic relaxation switch assay-sensors, which are based on the effects magnetic particles exert on water proton relaxation rates. The second type consists of magnetic particle relaxation sensors, which determine the relaxation of the magnetic moment within the magnetic particle. The third type is magnetoresistive sensors, which detect the presence of magnetic particles on the surface of electronic devices that are sensitive to changes in magnetic fields on their surface. Recent improvements in the design of magnetic nanoparticles (and magnetic particles), together with improvements in instrumentation, suggest that magnetic material-based biosensors may become widely used in the future.

Magnetic particles can act as magnetic relaxation switches (MRSw's) when they bind to target analytes, and switch between their dispersed and aggregated states resulting in changes in the spinspin relaxation time (T 2 ) of their surrounding water protons. Both nanoparticles (NPs, 10-100 nm) and micron-sized particles (MPs) have been employed as MRSw's, to sense drugs, metabolites, oligonucleotides, proteins, bacteria and mammalian cells. To better understand how NPs or MPs interact with targets, we employed as a molecular recognition system the reaction between the Tag peptide of the influenza virus hemagglutinin and a monoclonal antibody to that peptide (anti-Tag). To obtain targets of different size and valency, we attached the Tag peptide to BSA (Mw= 65000 Daltons, diameter = 8 nm) and to Latex spheres (diameter = 900 nm). To obtain magnetic probes of very different sizes, anti-Tag was conjugated to 40 nm NPs and 1 μm MPs. MP and NP probes reacted with Tag peptide targets in a manner similar to antibody/antigen reactions in solution, exhibiting socalled prozone effects. MPs detected all types of targets with higher sensitivity than NPs with targets of higher valency being better detected than those of lower valency. The Tag/anti-tag recognition system can be used to synthesize combinations of molecular targets and magnetic probes, to more fully understand the aggregation reaction that occurs when probes bind targets in solution and the ensuing changes in water relaxation times that result.

Modifying the surfaces of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) by the covalent attachment of biomolecules will enable their implementation as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging or as media for magnetically assisted bioseparations. In this paper we report both the surface coverage and the activity of IgG antibodies on MNPs. The antibodies were immobilized on gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles by conventional methods using aminopropyltriethoxy silane and subsequent activation by glutaraldehyde. Novel fluorescence methods were used to provide a quantitative evaluation of this well-known approach. Our results show that surface coverage can be stoichiometrically adjusted with saturated surface coverage occurring at approximately 36% of the theoretical limit. The saturated surface coverage corresponds to 34 antibody molecules bound to an average-sized MNP (32 nm diameter). We also show that the immobilized antibodies retain approximately 50% of their binding capacity at surface-saturated levels.