The 2nd International Symposium on Magnetotactic Bacteria and Biomineralization was held at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) during September 1-4, 2010.

The research into biomineralization is essential in understanding the inorganic-organic processes and mechanisms of the earth and also the innovation of biological nanophase materials.

Magnetosomes of magnetotactic bacteria mineralized body is a model for biological control, becoming the focus in the study of biological mineralization processes and mechanisms, bio-sensing mechanism of the geomagnetic field, the early earth or extraterrestrial life and other important scientific problems.

Magnetotactic bacteria also have important value in biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, sediment remanence, paleoenvironmental reconstruction as well as modern biological and medical research .

More than 50 scholars from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Israel, Hungary, Brazil and India, over 40 experts and 30 graduate students from Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Institute of Electrical Engineering, CAS, South China Sea Institute of oceanology, CAS and Fujian Institute of Research on the structure of Matter, CAS, China Agricultural University, Shandong University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Tianjin University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other units attended the meeting.

The Conference carried out extensive exchanges on the latest research about biomineralization of magnetotactic bacteria with the form of oral reports and posters, including the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria and the environment, magnetotactic bacteria genetics, genomics and cell biology science, magnetosomes biomineralization, biological nano-synthesis and application of magnetic minerals.