Emerging trends in application of magnetic beads in biopharma industry

Magnetic beads (magbeads), particularly those in the micron or submicron size range, have seen widespread adoption in industries due to their unique magnetic properties [1]. So far various surface chemistries and ligands have been developed to functionalize the magbead to achieve suitable selectivity, sensitivity and stability, keeping pace with the rapid advancements in the pharma and biopharma sectors [2,3]. For instance, oligo dT-coated magbeads for mRNA extraction were developed to meet the booming needs of mRNA-based therapeutics [4]; magbead based affinity selection was developed for high throughput screening of ligands by mass spectrometry to prevent COVID-19 [5].