High Gradient Magnetic Repulsion for 1. Separation and 2. Focusing of Cells and Biomolecules for Applications in Medicine and Biology PDF Download

Author: Siddharth Vyas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biomedical engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The ability to separate and focus cells and biomolecules enables many biological studies and medical diagnosis. At present most of the commercially available methods of magnetic separation work in batch mode with very limited control over selectivity of separation. In order to improve the selectivity of magnetic separation some researchers have suggested designs that utilize the phenomenon of magnetic attraction in order to pull the magnetic particles that are present in a flow towards a channel wall that's closer to the external attracting magnet. However, such designs require larger channel lengths for improved selectivity of separation as the magnetic field gradients produced by the external magnet are small and cannot exert sufficient attractive forces on the magnetic particles in order to pull them towards the channel wall. In regards to focusing, at present, there are no exclusively magnetic methods available to focus and separate magnetic particles. The few magnetic focusing methods that do exist utilize the phenomenon of magnetic attraction along with secondary sheath flows in order to separate and focus the magnetic particles. However, these methods suffer from poor performance as magnetic particles can only be focused at very low flow rates thereby reducing the number of magnetic particles that can be effectively focused per unit time. At the same time these methods require excellent control over flow rates of analyte and sheath fluid which is difficult to achieve. So far, the use of high gradient repulsive magnetic forces for separation and focusing of magnetic particles has largely been ignored by researchers that are working on magnetic separation and focusing methods. This dissertation investigates the feasibility of high gradient repulsive magnetic forces to separate and focus magnetic particles that are present in a flow. These feasibility studies are performed using simple separation and focusing designs that do not require any secondary sheath flows. Numerical methods are employed to determine the trajectories of magnetic particles in these designs. As an example application, the high gradient repulsive magnetic forces are utilized to separate, focus, and concentrate malaria-infected red blood cells in order to improve the microscopic diagnosis of malaria. In addition, in regards to the magnetic-stent assisted drug targeting systems, the low capture of drug carrying magnetic particles by magnetic stent wires is attributed to the repulsion of magnetic particles that were not captured by the first wire.