Magnetic beads vs Sepharose beads - (Feb/11/2018 )

Hi,

I am doing coIP and currently using Sepharose beads for my experiments from GE (https://www.gelifesciences.com/shop/chromatography/resins/affinity-antibody/gammabind-g-sepharose-p-00626?current=17088501)

I also found that some people use magnetic beads for separation of the proteins. For example, https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/88804

Can you suggest what is the most efficient separation method and what is the advantage of magnetic beads over sepharose beads?

Thanks

-Mad Researcher-

The advantage of magnetic beads is that the pull-down step is fast (<1 min) and very gentle compared to centrifuging, as there are no shear forces involved. It also means that you get consistent packing of the beads and can remove more of the buffer at each step. Resuspension is also easy as you just take away the magnet and gently rock the tube.

The disadvantage is cost - they are much more expensive (generally, I haven't looked lately) and the magnetic racks are crazily expensive - they use rare earth magnets which are very strong, the sort you find inside a computer HDD.

-bob1-