Overview
- Researchers report that samples with 50% live cells were purified to about 93% live, and samples starting at 10% live reached about 70% live.
- The setup uses two closely spaced magnets with added coils around a 1-millimeter capillary carrying cells in a paramagnetic solution, enabling instantaneous force adjustments.
- Demonstrations included breast and lung cancer cells, fibroblasts, and white blood cells, showing reproducible control of levitation height during sorting.
- Cancer-cell clusters responded faster to magnetic-field changes than single cells, suggesting levitation speed could help flag clusters linked to metastasis.
- Authors describe potential uses from processing low-volume biopsies for downstream genomics to organizing organoids and sorting microbes, though the system remains a laboratory proof of concept.