Dynabeads

Dynabeads are superparamagnetic spherical polymer particles with a uniform size and a consistent, defined surface for the adsorption or coupling of various bioreactive molecules or cells.

Dynabeads were developed after John Ugelstad managed to create uniform polystyrene spherical beads (defined as microbeads) of exactly the same size, at the University of Trondheim, Norway in 1976, something otherwise only achieved by NASA in the weightless conditions of SkyLab. Dynabeads are typically 1 to 5 micrometers in diameter. This is in contrast to the Magnetic-activated cell sorting beads, which are approximately 50 nm.