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,[1][2] at the University of Trondheim, Norway in 1976, something otherwise only achieved by NASA[3] in the weightless conditions of SkyLab.
[4][5] Following a series of mergers and acquisitions, Dynal and Dynabeads are currently owned and produced by Invitrogen,[4] part of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
[3] Since being licensed to Dynal in 1980, this magnetic separation technology has been since used for the isolation and manipulation of biological material, including cells, nucleic acids, proteins and pathogenic microorganisms.
Streptavidin linkage to the primary antibody allows Dynabeads to capture cells with lower expression of the surface protein.