Microchip-based detection of magnetically labeled cancer biomarkers

Micro-magnetic sensing and actuation have emerged as powerful tools for the diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. These technologies can be miniaturized and integrated onto compact, microfluidic platforms, enabling molecular diagnostics to be performed in practical clinical settings. Molecular targets tagged with magnetic nanoparticles can be detected with high sensitivity directly in unprocessed clinical samples (e.g. blood, sputum) due to the inherently negligible magnetic susceptibility of biological material. As a result, magnetic microchip-based diagnostics have been applied with great success to the isolation and detection of rare cells and the measurement of sparse soluble proteins. In this paper, we review recent advances in microchip-based detection of magnetically labeled biomarkers and their translation to clinical applications in cancer.