Recent advances in magnetic levitation: A biological approach from diagnostics to tissue engineering

Abstract

The magnetic levitation technique has been utilized to orientate and manipulate objects both in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D) to form complex structures by combining various types of materials. Magnetic manipulation holds great promise for several applications such as self-assembly of soft substances and biological building blocks, manipulated tissue engineering, as well as cell or biological molecule sorting for diagnostic purposes. Recent studies are proving the potential of magnetic levitation as an emerging tool in biotechnology. This review outlines the advances of newly developing magnetic levitation technology on biological applications in aqueous environment from the biotechnology perspective.