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Our ability to quantitatively control the spatiotemporal properties of cellular information processing is key for understanding biological systems at both mechanistic and systemic level. In this context, magnetic field offers a relevant strategy of control over cellular processes that broaden the toolbox currently available in cell biology. Among the increasing number of methods, we will focus on recent advances based on magnetic nanoparticles conjugated to proteins to trigger specific signaling pathways and cellular processes. Extracellular or intracellular manipulations of nanoparticles permit magnetic control of ion channels and membrane receptor activation, protein positioning within cells and cytoskeleton spatial engineering. These approaches provide powerful strategies to examine the organization principles of living cells. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2015, 7:342-354. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1313 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]