title: Magnetic nanoparticles-loaded Physarum polycephalum: Directed growth and particles distribution.
abstract: Slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by an unaided eye. The slime mold optimizes its network of protoplasmic tubes to minimize expose to repellents and maximize expose to attractants and to make efficient transportation of nutrients. These properties of P. polycephalum, together with simplicity of its handling and culturing, make it a priceless substrate for designing novel sensing, computing and actuating architectures in living amorphous biological substrate. We demonstrate that, by loading Physarum with magnetic particles and positioning it in a magnetic field, we can, in principle, impose analog control procedures to precisely route active growing zones of slime mold and shape topology of its protoplasmic networks.
authors.affiliation: CNR-IMEM (National Council of the Researches - Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism), Parco Area delle Scienze 37A, 43124, Parma, Italy, alice.dimonte@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dimonte
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cifarelli
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Berzina
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chiesi
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferro
authors.forename: Tullo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Besagni
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Albertini
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adamatzky
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Erokhin