Blood culture is traditionally a time-consuming method and has not changed significantly in several decades. Using nanotechnology, such as the use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), the blood culture process may be streamlined. An important advantage of using MNPs to capture bacteria is the simple separation of bacteria from biological samples using magnets. Indeed, high bacteria capture efficiencies have been realized using MNPs. The binding events between MNPs and bacteria can be tightly controlled through carefully selected biorecognition events, using molecules such as vancomycin, daptomycin, antibodies, and others. These biomolecules can be readily conjugated onto MNPs followed by tethering to bacteria, thus enabling detection using the beacon produced by the bacteria conjugated MNPs. Methods to prepare bioconjugated MNPs and their performance with bacteria are reviewed. Finally, future directions on bacteria detection using giant magnetoresistance (GMR) biosensors are discussed.