For several years magnetic beads have attracted considerable attention and have been used for a variety of applications and the bead based technology is widely accepted in molecular biology research. A key feature of magnetic beads is that they can be easily captured from liquid and re-suspended in liquid by attaching and detaching a magnet to/from a Tip wall. Furthermore, with various types of coating materials over the bead surface, they specifically capture a targeted substance by utilizing the large surface area of the bead. PSS (Precision system science) has developed Magtration Technology to manipulate magnetic bead precisely and have commercialized automated nucleic acid purification systems utilizing this technology. And developed a fully automated Magtration System 12GC, of which occupies only a small footprint on a laboratory bench.Magnetic beads technology

Magnetic particles consist of one or more magnetic cores with a coating matrix of polymers, silica or hydroxylapatite with terminal functionalized groups. The magnetic core generally consists either of magnetite (Fe3O4) or maghemite (gamma Fe2O3) with superparamagnetic or ferromagnetic properties.

The automation system is using magnetic particles which are capable with many sorts of function, combining with the automatic dispensing machine. The mainly use the magnetic particles which are capable for the adsorption of nucleic acid. The automatic systems have many possibilities to combine other functional magnetic particles to develop new application.

Properties of the magnetic beads

1. Size range 0.1 ~ 10mm, can be handled like a liquid.
2. A Large surface area promotes efficient and fast reactions.
3. Quantitative capture of targets from microliter volumes.
4. Isolation and purification are easy to perform with the efficient separation of liquid and beads with a powerful magnet.
5. Isolated beads readily disperse into liquids making it easy to wash or separate the beads from the target matrix.
6. Surface treatment of the beads can be tailored to optimize capture of a variety of samples such as DNA, RNA, mRNA.

What is Magtration ?

Magtration is a term newly created, of which derived from abbreviating Magnetic Filtration. It means to separate the binding and the free substances by use of a magnetic field. Magtration is a proprietary PSS technology developed to automate magnetic particle-based reaction systems. The automation of nucleic acid extraction mediated by magnetic particles has been thus far unsatisfactory because the difficulty of integrating several key factors on one device. These difficult factors include the capturing efficiency (a key point of the particle controlling process), the re-suspension efficiency of the next process, preventing contamination and others. PSS resolved these problems successfully by incorporating its proprietary Magtration Technology in an extremely simplistic device which was originally used as an automated pipetting station. In this device, a sample is first drawn up into a pipette tip, which is loaded into a nozzle. The sample is then dispensed into a well containing reagent and mixed by aspirating and dispensing repeatedly. Keeping the apical end of the tip soaked in liquid prevents air bubbles or splashes from coming up. The magnetic particles can be effectively separated and captured on the inner wall of the pipette tip by a magnet that comes into contact with the tip at the part with optimal diameter during aspirating or dispensing operation. Moving the separated particles to the next well and repeating the aspirating/dispensing operation can lead to effective re-suspending or washing of the magnetic particles. Disposable tips reduce cross contamination. MAGTRATION provides precise, automated control of magnetic beads.



Magtration Automated Systems

Magtration System 12GC utilized precise magnetic micro-particles handling, which is widely accepted in this field, has big advanced features, of which we call "All Process in Tip Technology”.  simple Tip and magnet mechanism without any of centrifugation, filtration and vacuum systems, and vortex, ii) Reagents pre-filled reaction cartridge, iii) one Tip/pre-filled reaction cartridge dedicates just for one sample which enables to minimize cross contamination and carry-over, iv) final purified nucleic acid can be directly used in downstream studies, such as PCR, and restriction enzyme digestion. (fig.3)



The aspirating and dispensing cylinder is controlled along the X, Y and Z axes and uses three fundamental and precise control elements to meet a broad variety of reaction processes involving reagents and magnetic beads. A filtration process carried out in a disposable tip. High efficiency for washing/elution Free of cross-contamination (fig. 4) 


                           
There are 3 control elements
1. High performance dispenser (cylinder).
2. Specially designed disposable dispensing tip.
3. Freely controllable magnet next to tip.

Features
1. Cross-contamination is avoided by using disposable tips.
2. The dispenser is moved, not the reaction vessels resulting in a simple robust design.
3. Beads are easily separated and concentrated in small volumes.
4. Concentrated magnetic beads are contained within the disposable tip to prevent cross-contamination.
5. A variety of isolation reagents and protocols are available for the magnetic bead format.