New Paper Published in Advanced Materials Technologies

Our recent work, led by Shahriar Mostufa, titled “Wet Ball Milling Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for High-Efficiency, Controllable Magnetic Hyperthermia in Ovarian Cancer,” has been published in Advanced Materials Technologies.

In this study, we develop a simple, scalable, and cost-effective mechanochemical (wet ball milling) approach to synthesize iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) for biomedical applications. By systematically tuning milling conditions, we demonstrate the formation of magnetite-rich nanoparticles with favorable size and morphology for magnetic hyperthermia. Under clinically safe alternating magnetic fields (30 mT, 101.5 kHz), these MNPs achieve efficient heating with temperature increases up to ~50 °C, including in ovarian cancer (SKOV3) cell media. Importantly, we further demonstrate controlled thermal dosing using pulsed magnetic fields, enabling moderate heating (~30 °C) to help minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Comprehensive characterization, along with cellular uptake, colloidal stability, and biocompatibility studies, highlights the potential of this platform for safe and effective cancer therapy. This work establishes wet ball milling as a promising route for large-scale production of MNPs for translational magnetic hyperthermia applications.

We thank the support and collaboration from Drs. Changxue Xu, Yun Suk Eo, Jenifer Gómez-Pastora, and Rui He.