We were capable of synthesizing magnetic nanoparticles with diameters of 22 nanometers. After coating them with Silicon dioxide their diameter was about 39 nanometers, these sizes were determined by Dynamic Light Scattering, a technique that shows the size distribution of the particles. The aminosilinization could not be confirmed by infrared spectra because the small amount of the amino groups in the sample. However the protein could be immobilized in the particle, showing us that the particles were correctly amino functionalized.

Without a transmission electronic microscope it seemed a hard work to determine if the DNA and the protein had been attached to the nanoparticles, however we had another cheap yet powerful tool: Electrophoresis.
By comparing a the isolated plasmid and protein with a sample of drills in agarose gel we could see that neither the protein nor the plasmid would shift when they were immobilized in the nanoparticles. Even after adding restriction enzymes, the plasmid wouldn't shift in the electrophoresis gel. In the image to the right we might see the electroporation realized. First well is for the plasmid, second to fifth wells are for individual components of the drill. The sixth well contains the whole Drill. There are not Shifted bands in this Well which means the biological material was completely attached to the nanoparticle.

For the second module of the project we aimed to use the Drill as a cloning vector. We realized an electroporation in presence of a magnetic field using BBa_K737051 as control. We got a positive result with 80/100 colonies. The sample containing the Drills was ultrasonicated prior electroporation to avoid agglomerated devices.