Magnetic-activated cell sorting

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Magnetic-activated cell sorting" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Magnetic-activated cell sorting" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) is a method for separation of various cell populations depending on their surface antigens (CD molecules) invented by Miltenyi Biotec. The name MACS is a registered trademark of the company.

The method was developed with Miltenyi Biotec's MACS system, which uses superparamagnetic nanoparticles and columns. The superparamagnetic nanoparticles are of the order of 100 nm. They are used to tag the targeted cells in order to capture them inside the column. The column is placed between permanent magnets so that when the magnetic particle-cell complex passes through it, the tagged cells can be captured. The column consists of steel wool which increases the magnetic field gradient to maximize separation efficiency when the column is placed between the permanent magnets.

Magnetic-activated cell sorting is a commonly used method in areas like immunology, cancer research, neuroscience, and stem cell research. Miltenyi sells microbeads which are magnetic nanoparticles conjugated to antibodies which can be used to target specific cells.