Method and apparatus for sorting particles
AssigneeCytonome/St, LLC
InventorsManish Deshpande, John R. Gilbert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for sorting particles moving through a closed channel system of capillary size comprises a bubble valve for selectively generating a pressure pulse to separate a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles. The particle sorting system may further include a buffer for absorbing the pressure pulse. The particle sorting system may include a plurality of closely coupled sorting modules which are combined to further increase the sorting rate. The particle sorting system may comprise a multi-stage sorting device for serially sorting streams of particles, in order to decrease the error rate.
Claims26
A particle sorting chip comprising:
- a duct configured to convey particles in a stream, the duct including an inlet and a plurality of flow-through outlet channels, wherein the particles normally flow from the inlet into a first outlet channel of the plurality of flow-through outlet channels;
- and
- a first chamber in fluid communication with the duct via a first side opening, the first side opening positioned upstream of the plurality of flow-through outlet channels,
- wherein the first chamber is an actuator chamber configured to selectively discharge a transient pressure pulse during a switching operation via the first side opening to a selected particle having a predetermined characteristic,
- wherein the transient pressure pulse separates the selected particle from the stream of particles continuing to flow into the first outlet channel and deflects the selected particle into a second outlet channel of the plurality of flow-through outlet channels, and
- wherein, in the absence of the switching operation, fluid does not flow through the first side opening.
A particle sorting method comprising:
- providing a particle sorting chip including a duct having an inlet and one or more outlet channels and first and second side passages in fluid communication with the duct via first and second openings, respectively, the first and second openings arranged on opposite sides of the duct and substantially opposed to one another;
- flowing a stream of particles in a first direction from the inlet into a first outlet channel;
- and
- conducting a switching operation comprising:
- transiently discharging an amount of liquid into the duct via the first side passage, the transiently discharged amount of liquid resulting in a transverse pressure pulse;
- applying the transverse pressure pulse to a selected particle in the stream of particles flowing in the duct;
- transversely displacing the selected particle relative to the other particles in the stream;
- and
- separating the selected particle from the stream of particles without disturbing the flow of the other particles into the first outlet channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.