Localized Manipulation of Magnetic Particles in an Ensemble

The ability to manipulate magnetic particles selectively and simultaneously (within a group of such particles) has significant implications in studying cellular behaviors and in manipulating microstructures at an ensemble-level. The current magnetic manipulation techniques have been demonstrated to be effective for studying cell mechanics. However, they suffer from low throughput, as only one particle is addressed in an individual experiment. This renders them unsuitable for ensemble-level operations. In this paper, we present a magnetic manipulation system that enables (effectively) simultaneous yet localized manipulation of magnetic particles. The proposed system is equipped with a novel device, which realizes magnetic force localization. The properly localized force allows selective manipulation of a single magnetic particle in a group. The localization effects of this device are demonstrated and quantified through analytical modeling and simulations that yielded statistically meaningful results. With the characterized device, experiments were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system.