A new class of magnet plates for biological and industrial applications has recently been developed at the D.O.E. Joint Genome Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (JGI/LBNL). These devices utilize hybrid technology that combines linear permanent magnet material and ferromagnetic material to produce significantly higher fields and gradients than currently available commercial magnet plates. These hybrid structures incorporate ferromagnetic poles that can be easily shaped to produce complex field distributions for specialized applications. The higher maximum fields and strong gradients of the hybrid structures result in greater holding forces on magnetized targets that are being processed as well as faster draw-down. Current development versions of these magnet plates have exhibited maximum fields in excess of 9000.0 Gauss. The design of these structures is easily scalable to allow for field increases to significantly above 1.0 tesla (10000.0 gauss). Author's note: 11000.0 Gauss peak fields have been achieved as of January 2005.