ArticleeLife2016
Physical limits to magnetogenetics.
Article in eLife, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 210 citations in OpenAlex.
- Magnetic DNA Origami Nanorotors.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
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- Aptamers with magnetically tunable affinity for divalent cobalt ions.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Traceless Regulation of Genetic Circuitry.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Genetic manipulation technologies for precise cellular control: a comparative review of five approaches.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Review
- Ferrimagnetic Vortex Nanorings Facilitate Efficient and Safe Deep-Brain Magnetothermal Stimulation in Freely Moving Mice.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2025Article
- Open-source magnetic system for wireless neuromodulations in vitro and for untethered brain stimulation in vivo.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Control of cardiac waves in human iPSC-CM syncytia by a Halbach array and magnetic nanoparticles.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Review
- Magnetizing Biotech-Advances in (In Vivo) Magnetic Enzyme Immobilization.Engineering in life sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Parallelized Mechanical Stimulation of Neuronal Calcium Through Cell-Internal Nanomagnetic Forces Provokes Lasting Shifts in the Network Activity State.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Bidirectional regulation of motor circuits using magnetogenetic gene therapy.Science advances · 2024Article
- In vivo magnetogenetics for cell-type-specific targeting and modulation of brain circuits.Nature nanotechnology · 2024Article
- Electrophysiological Mechanisms and Validation of Ferritin-Based Magnetogenetics for Remote Control of Neurons.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Proteins as nanomagnets and magnetoreceptors.Zoological research · 2024Article
- Magnetogenetics as a promising tool for controlling cellular signaling pathways.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2024Review
- Force-Based Neuromodulation.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Review
- Bidirectional Regulation of Motor Circuits Using Magnetogenetic Gene Therapy Short: Magnetogenetic Regulation of Motor Circuits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Magnetogenetic cell activation using endogenous ferritin.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This is an analysis of how magnetic fields affect biological molecules and cells. It was prompted by a series of prominent reports regarding magnetism in biological systems. The first claims to have identified a protein complex that acts like a compass needle to guide magnetic orientation in animals (Qin et al., 2016). Two other articles report magnetic control of membrane conductance by attaching ferritin to an ion channel protein and then tugging the ferritin or heating it with a magnetic field (Stanley et al., 2015; Wheeler et al., 2016). Here I argue that these claims conflict with basic laws of physics. The discrepancies are large: from 5 to 10 log units. If the reported phenomena do in fact occur, they must have causes entirely different from the ones proposed by the authors. The paramagnetic nature of protein complexes is found to seriously limit their utility for engineering magnetically sensitive cells.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.