Magnetic Bead-Based Nucleic Acid Isolation

Magnetic bead-based techniques are majorly used to extract and purify the nucleic acids directly from all types of crude samples like tissues of blood, hair or nails, soil, fungal growth, and viruses. It is advantageous over other extraction strategies such as cost-effective, rapid, eco-friendly, and high yield. This strategy is based upon the principle of paramagnetism or superparamagnetism. An external magnetic field is applied to a solution containing these tiny nanoparticles/beads, which behaves as small paramagnets due to induced spin. The efficiency and diversity of magnetic beads to extract biological samples are enhanced by enriching their surface chemistry by functionalizing with appropriate chemicals. The major processing steps include binding target biomolecule with beads, immobilization through applying external magnetic field, washing, and extraction of nucleic acid from beads. These techniques possess extensive applications in genetic engineering, hereditary and genomic identification, diagnosis, pharmaceuticals, and vaccine development. However, the next-generation magnetic bead separation techniques are intelligent and automated, requiring specific processing with the Internet of things.