Functionalized magnetic particles are emerging as a reliable and convenient technique in the purification of biomacromolecules (proteins and nucleic acids). We disclose a novel coupling procedure that can be used to create stable ferromagnetic nickel particles coated with Protein A for the affinity purification of antibody. The protein purification procedure is gentle, scalable, automatable, efficient and economical. By modifying the functional groups of amino acids in the protein coating, nickel particles can be used not only for affinity purification but for other sample preparation and chromatographic applications as well including nucleic acid isolations. The method can be easily modified for small and medium scale antibody purification in lab and pre-clinical research.