Lab-on-a-chip tools have played a pivotal role in advancing modern biology and medicine. A key goal in this field is to precisely transport single particles and cells to specific locations on a chip for quantitative analysis. To address this large and growing need, magnetophoretic circuits have been developed in the last decade to manipulate a large number of single bioparticles in a parallel and highly controlled manner. Inspired by electrical circuits, magnetophoretic circuits are composed of passive and active circuit elements to offer commensurate levels of control and automation for transporting individual bioparticles. These specifications make them unique compared to other technologies in addressing crucial bioanalytical applications and answering fundamental questions buried in highly heterogeneous cell populations. In this comprehensive review, we describe key theoretical considerations for manufacturing and simulating magnetophoretic circuits. We provide a detailed tutorial for operating magnetophoretic devices containing different circuit elements (e.g., conductors, diodes, capacitors, and transistors). Finally, we provide a critical comparison of the utility of these devices to other microchip-based platforms for cellular manipulation, and discuss how they may address unmet needs in single-cell biology and medicine.

芯片实验室工具在推进现代生物学和医学方面发挥了关键作用。该领域的一个关键目标是将单个粒子和细胞精确地传输到芯片上的特定位置以进行定量分析。为了满足这一巨大且不断增长的需求，在过去十年中开发了磁泳电路，以并行和高度控制的方式操纵大量单个生物颗粒。受电路的启发，磁泳电路由无源和有源电路元件组成，为传输单个生物颗粒提供相应水平的控制和自动化。与其他技术相比，这些规格使其在解决关键生物分析应用和回答高度异质性细胞群中隐藏的基本问题方面具有独特性。在这篇全面的综述中，我们描述了制造和模拟磁泳电路的关键理论考虑因素。我们提供了操作包含不同电路元件（例如导体、二极管、电容器和晶体管）的磁泳设备的详细教程。最后，我们对这些设备与其他基于微芯片的细胞操作平台的实用性进行了批判性比较，并讨论了它们如何解决单细胞生物学和医学中未满足的需求。