Magnetic cell separation

Magnetic cell separation, also termed magnetic-activated cell sorting, refers to the separation technology that employs magnetic fields to differentiate various cell populations and isolates target cells from the biological sample. Due to the superior advantages such as low cost, simple operation, high selectivity, high throughput, robustness, and good biocompatibility, magnetic cell separation technology has been developed rapidly, and a variety of magnetic cell separation designs have been proposed. As a very promising candidate for cell separation, magnetic cell separation has been successfully applied for a wide range of biomedical applications. This chapter discusses the fundamental physics behind magnetic cell separation, elaborates the typical formats of developed technologies, and summarizes their key applications of cell separation. This chapter is expected to help readers to have a clear concept of magnetic cell separation, to understand its fundamental physics, and to familiarize typical designs of magnetic cell separators and their applications.