{"id":401,"date":"2009-04-02T21:23:04","date_gmt":"2009-04-02T08:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic_attraction\/"},"modified":"2009-04-02T21:23:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T08:23:04","slug":"magnetic-attraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/","title":{"rendered":"magnetic attraction&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scienceagogo.com\/news\/20090230035117data_trunc_sys.shtml\">here&#8217;s an interesting little item<\/a>: using magnets to remove pathogens from the bloodstream&#8230; I must admit that when I saw the topic on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scienceagogo.com\/news\/20090230035117data_trunc_sys.shtml\">SciTechDaily<\/a>&nbsp;my first thoughts were very sceptical. The idea that sleeping on magnets can cure whatever ails you, for example,&nbsp;has always been a bit much for me to swallow. But on reading the original story &#8211; it does sound possible.<\/p>\n<p>A research team looked at the possibility of using magnets to help clear pathogens from samples of human blood &#8211; but it was nothing to do with somehow using magnetism to &#8216;get&#8217; the baddies. Instead, they took tiny magnetic beads &amp; coated them with antibodies to a disease-causing organism; in this case, the fungus&nbsp;<i>Candida albicans<\/i>. When the treated beads were mixed with contaminated blood, the antibodies linked with specific antigens on the surface of the&nbsp;<i>Candida<\/i> cells, so that each little bead became the centre of a cluster of fungus cells. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infectioncontroltoday.com\/hotnews\/blood-cleansing-technology-sepsis.html\">The whole lot could then be removed<\/a> using a larger magnet, drawing the beads+fungus clumps out of the blood &amp; into a collecting fluid.<\/p>\n<p>At the moment,&nbsp;this is at the stage of a bench-top experiment. But it has more science behind it than some of the other claims you hear about magnets&#8230; Out of curiosity I went looking &amp; found that using tiny magnetic beads to grab substances out of solution has been done elsewhere &#8211; to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science?_ob=ArticleURL&amp;_udi=B6TJJ-42T4FB3-T&amp;_user=100025&amp;_rdoc=1&amp;_fmt=&amp;_orig=search&amp;_sort=d&amp;view=c&amp;_acct=C000007699&amp;_version=1&amp;_urlVersion=0&amp;_userid=100025&amp;md5=bbf359b337653505dcf206dda5bb5ed5\">separate specific RNA or DNA sequences<\/a>, for example (Oster, Parker &amp; Brassard, 2001). So this technique isn&#8217;t novel, &amp; has been tried &amp; tested in other applications already.<\/p>\n<p>And I&#8217;ve learned something new. A little curiosity can take you a long way!<\/p>\n<p><cite>J.Oster, J.Parker &amp; L.a Brassard (2001) Polyvinyl-alcohol-based magnetic beads for rapid and efficient separation of specific or unspecific nucleic acid sequences.&nbsp;<u>Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials<\/u>&nbsp;<b>225<\/b>(1-2): 145-150. doi:10.1016\/S0304-8853(00)01243-9<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now here&#8217;s an interesting little item: using magnets to remove pathogens from the bloodstream&#8230; I must admit that when I saw the topic on SciTechDaily&nbsp;my first thoughts were very sceptical. The idea that sleeping on magnets can cure whatever ails you, for example,&nbsp;has always been a bit much for me to swallow. But on reading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[3,14],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>magnetic attraction... : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"magnetic attraction... : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now here&#8217;s an interesting little item: using magnets to remove pathogens from the bloodstream&#8230; I must admit that when I saw the topic on SciTechDaily&nbsp;my first thoughts were very sceptical. The idea that sleeping on magnets can cure whatever ails you, for example,&nbsp;has always been a bit much for me to swallow. But on reading [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/\",\"name\":\"magnetic attraction... : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"magnetic attraction&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"magnetic attraction... : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"magnetic attraction... : BioBlog","og_description":"Now here&#8217;s an interesting little item: using magnets to remove pathogens from the bloodstream&#8230; I must admit that when I saw the topic on SciTechDaily&nbsp;my first thoughts were very sceptical. The idea that sleeping on magnets can cure whatever ails you, for example,&nbsp;has always been a bit much for me to swallow. But on reading [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/","og_site_name":"BioBlog","article_published_time":"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00","author":"Alison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AcampbelTeacher","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alison","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/","name":"magnetic attraction... : BioBlog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-02T08:23:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-NZ","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/magnetic-attraction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"magnetic attraction&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/","name":"BioBlog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-NZ"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea","name":"Alison","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}