Gao, XiaohuProbst, Christine E.2013-02-252014-02-262013-02-252012Probst_washington_0250O_10881.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/21862Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2012Medical and biological research is progressing at an astonishing rate, with an increasing emphasis on the understanding of complex biological systems. At the heart of this revolution has been the development of modern researching technologies, especially those that take more biological measurements, with increasing sensitivity and precision, at higher speed and lower cost. For example, immunomagnetic separation has become an essential tool for high throughout and low cost isolation of biomolecules and cells from heterogeneous samples. However, as magnetic selection is essentially a "black-and-white" assay, its application has been largely restricted to single-target and single-parameter studies. This document describes the development of an immunomagnetic separation technology that can quickly sort multiple targets at high yield and purity using selectively displaceable DNA linkers. Overall, this work provides strong evidence for the benefits of this approach for experiments requiring multiplexed immunomagnetic separation, can be readily adopted for specific applications requiring high throughput selection of multiple targets, and further adapted for selection of a single target based on multiple surface epitopes.application/pdfen-USCopyright is held by the individual authors.Biomedical engineeringBioengineeringThesis