Emerging Magnetic Fabrication Technologies Provide Controllable Hierarchically-Structured Biomaterials and Stimulus Response for Biomedical Applications

Multifunctional nanocomposites which exhibit well-defined physical properties and encode spatiotemporally-controlled responses are emerging as components for advanced responsive systems. For biomedical applications magnetic nanocomposite materials have attracted significant attention due to their ability to respond to spatially and temporally varying magnetic fields. The current state-of-the-art in development and fabrication of magnetic hydrogels toward biomedical applications is described. There is accelerating progress in the field due to advances in manufacturing capabilities. Three categories can be identified: i) Magnetic hydrogelation, DC magnetic fields are used during solidification/gelation for aligning particles; ii) additive manufacturing of magnetic materials, 3D printing technologies are used to develop spatially-encoded magnetic properties, and more recently; iii) magnetic additive manufacturing, magnetic responses are applied during the printing process to develop increasingly complex structural arrangement that may recapitulate anisotropic tissue structure and function. The magnetic responsiveness of conventionally and additively manufactured magnetic hydrogels are described along with recent advances in soft magnetic robotics, and the categorization is related to final architecture and emergent properties. Future challenges and opportunities, including the anticipated role of combinatorial approaches in developing 4D-responsive functional materials for tackling long-standing problems in biomedicine including production of 3D-specified responsive cell scaffolds are discussed.

In-Silico Conceptualisation of Continuous Millifluidic Separators for Magnetic Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles are researched intensively not only for biomedical applications, but also for industrial applications including wastewater treatment and catalytic processes. Although these particles have been shown to have interesting surface properties in their bare form, their magnetisation remains a key feature, as it allows for magnetic separation. This makes them a promising carrier for precious materials and enables recovery via magnetic fields that can be turned on and off on demand, rather than using complex (nano)filtration strategies. However, designing a magnetic separator is by no means trivial, as the magnetic field and its gradient, the separator dimensions, the particle properties (such as size and susceptibility), and the throughput must be coordinated. This is showcased here for a simple continuous electromagnetic separator design requiring no expensive materials or equipment and facilitating continuous operation. The continuous electromagnetic separator chosen was based on a current-carrying wire in the centre of a capillary, which generated a radially symmetric magnetic field that could be described using cylindrical coordinates. The electromagnetic separator design was tested in-silico using a Lagrangian particle-tracking model accounting for hydrodynamics, magnetophoresis, as well as particle diffusion. This computational approach enabled the determination of separation efficiencies for varying particle sizes, magnetic field strengths, separator geometries, and flow rates, which provided insights into the complex interplay between these design parameters. In addition, the model identified the separator design allowing for the highest separation efficiency and determined the retention potential in both single and multiple separators in series. The work demonstrated that throughputs of ~1/4 L/h could be achieved for 250–500 nm iron oxide nanoparticle solutions, using less than 10 separator units in series.

Dynamic Halbach array magnet integrated microfluidic system for the continuous-flow separation of rare tumor cells

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), the most representative rare cells in peripheral blood, have received great attention due to their clinical utility in liquid biopsy. The downstream analysis of intact CTCs isolated from peripheral blood provides important clinical information for personalized medicine. However, current CTC isolation and detection methods have been challenged by their extreme rarity and heterogeneity. In this study, we developed a novel microfluidic system with a continuously moving Halbach array magnet (dHAMI microfluidic system) for negative isolation CTCs from whole blood, which aimed to capture non-target white blood cells (WBCs) and elute target CTCs. The dynamic and continuous movement of the Halbach array magnet generated a continuous magnetic force acting on the magnetic bead-labelled WBCs in the continuous-flow fluid to negatively exclude the WBCs from the CTCs. Furthermore, the continuously moving magnetic field effectively eliminated the effect of magnetic bead aggregation on the fluid flow to realize the continuous-flow separation of the CTCs without a sample loading volume limitation. The experimental procedure for CTC negative isolation using the dHAMI microfluidic system could be completed within 40 min. Under the optimized experimental conditions of the dHAMI microfluidic system, including the flow rate and concentration of the immunomagnetic bead, the average CTC capture rate over a range of spiked cell numbers (50–1000 cancer cells per mL) was up to 91.6% at a flow rate of 100 μL min⁻¹. Finally, the CTCs were successfully detected in 10 of 10 (100%) blood samples from patients with cancer. Therefore, the dHAMI microfluidic system could effectively isolate intact and heterogeneous CTCs for downstream cellular and molecular analyses, and this robust microfluidic platform with an excellent magnetic manipulation performance also has great application potential for the separation of other rare cells.

We develop a dynamic Halbach array magnet integrated microfluidic system for continuous-flow separation of circulating tumor cells from whole blood.

Recent advances and current challenges in magnetophoresis based micro magnetofluidics

The combination of magnetism and microscale fluid flow has opened up a new era for handling and manipulation of samples in microfluidics. In particular, magnetophoresis, the migration of particles in a magnetic field, is extremely attractive for microfluidic handling due to its contactless nature, independence of ionic concentration, and lack of induced heating. The present paper focuses on recent advances and current challenges of magnetophoresis and highlights the key parameters affecting the manipulation of particles by magnetophoresis. The magnetic field is discussed according to their relative motion to the sample as stationary and dynamic fields. The migration of particles is categorized as positive and negative magnetophoresis. The applications of magnetophoresis are discussed according to the basic manipulation tasks such as mixing, separation, and trapping of particles or cells. Finally, the paper highlights the limitations of current approaches and provides the future perspective for this research area.