Journal article
Nonmonotonic Superparamagnetic Behavior of the Ferritin Iron Core Revealed via Quantum Spin Relaxometry
Erin S Grant, Liam T Hall, Lloyd CL Hollenberg, Gawain McColl, David A Simpson
ACS NANO | AMER CHEMICAL SOC | Published : 2023
Abstract
Ferritin is the primary storage protein in our body and is of significant interest in biochemistry, nanotechnology, and condensed matter physics. More specifically within this sphere of interest are the magnetic properties of the iron core of ferritin, which have been utilized as a contrast agent in applications such as magnetic resonance imaging. This magnetism depends on both the number of iron atoms present, L, and the nature of the magnetic ordering of their electron spins. In this work, we create a series of ferritin samples containing homogeneous iron loads and apply diamond-based quantum spin relaxometry to systematically study their room temperature magnetic properties. We observe an..
View full abstractRelated Projects (1)
Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Awarded by Australian Research Council via a DECRA Fellowship
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from the Australian Research Council DP180101248, the Melbourne Neuroscience Institute Interdisciplinary Seed Funding and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. L.T.H. acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council via a DECRA Fellowship (DE200101785), and the University of Melbourne via an Establishment Grant. E.S.G. acknowledges the support of the Graeme Clarke Insitute for Biomedical Engineering. The authors thank Dr. Anders Barlow at The University of Melbourne Materials Characterization and Nanofabrication suite who acquired the HIM images, Associate Professor Jeff McCallum and Dr. Brett Johnson for the 12C2 implantation, and Alex Healey for performing T2 measure-ments.