To Bead or Not To Bead: Applications of Magnetic Bead Technology

Date: June 22, 1998Table 1:Paramagnetic Particles, Table 2:Primary Antibodies Magnetic separations in biology and biotechnology have diversified in recent years, leading to a bewildering array of different particles, affinity mechanisms, and processes. Applications in the nucleic acid realm include products for total and poly(A)+ mRNA isolation from cells or previously purified total RNA preparations, solid-phase cDNA library construction, double-stranded and single-stranded DNA purification, s

Written byBob Sinclair

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Date: June 22, 1998

Table 1:Paramagnetic Particles, Table 2:Primary Antibodies

Magnetic separations in biology and biotechnology have diversified in recent years, leading to a bewildering array of different particles, affinity mechanisms, and processes. Applications in the nucleic acid realm include products for total and poly(A)⁺ mRNA isolation from cells or previously purified total RNA preparations, solid-phase cDNA library construction, double-stranded and single-stranded DNA purification, solid phase DNA sequencing, and a variety of hybridization-based methodologies. Magnetic beads also are finding uses in protein purification, immunology, and the isolation of a wide range of specific mammalian cells, bacteria, viruses, subcellular organelles, and individual proteins. There are also products that employ magnetic particles for more conventional isolation and purification methods such as affinity and ion exchange and charcoal trapping of small analytes. It is difficult to know where to start!

Fortunately, with few exceptions, most magnetic particles fall into three broad classes: unmodified (or ...

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