NEW 7-T SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNET SYSTEM FOR BACTERIAL CULTIVATION

A new superconducting magnet system for bacterial cultivation has been developed. The superconducting magnet has a horizontal room temperature bore with a diameter of 160 mm, and provides a homogeneous magnetic field of 7 T +/- 0.5% for a 200 mm long x 100 mm diameter region. This homogeneous field region contains an incubator, where bacteria are cultivated aerobically at 10-70-degrees-C +/- 0.1-degrees-C while being shaken. The culture exposed to the high magnetic field is compared with a control culture incubated at below geomagnetic field strength. Cultivation of Escherichia coli was carried out both in homogeneous and in inhomogeneous fields, and 1.4-3.6 times the number of viable cells of the control culture was observed in a stationary phase.