Preparation and application of magnetic poly(styrene-glycidyl methacrylate) microspheres

A novel method for the preparation of polymer-based, magnetic microspheres is proposed. Pre-made, poly(styrene-glycidyl methacrylate) (PS-GMA) particles of micron size were swollen by a mixture of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and water, and then incubated with superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were allowed to diffuse into polymer microspheres during the incubation, became entrapped and made the polymer microspheres superparamagnetic. These magnetic PS-GMA microspheres were chemically modified and then coupled with single-stranded oligonucleotides as probes for DNA hybridization. The immobilized probes showed repeatable capture of target oligonucleotides.