Apparatus and Method for Cyclic Flow Cytometry Using Particularized Cell Identification

An improved flow cytometry apparatus, of the type having a flow channel coupled to a flow input configured to receive a sample population of cellular entities to be measured, with respect to a target set of parameters, the flow channel being instrumented for obtaining and storing successive fluorescence readings from successive cellular entities passing therethrough, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an OFID reader associated with the flow channel, wherein each cellular entity in the sample population has been tagged with an optical identifier, and the OFID reader is configured to determine an identification of each cellular entity as it is being measured in each pass of a plurality of passes of the sample population of cellular entities through the flow channel, each pass associated with a corresponding target set of parameters.

An improved flow cytometry apparatus, of the type having a flow channel coupled to a flow input configured to receive a sample population of cellular entities to be measured, with respect to a target set of parameters, the flow channel being instrumented for obtaining successive fluorescence readings from successive cellular entities passing therethrough, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an OFID reader associated with the flow channel, wherein each cellular entity in the sample population has been tagged with an optical identifier, and the OFID reader is configured to determine an identification of each cellular entity as it is being measured in each pass of a plurality of passes of the sample population of cellular entities through the flow channel, each pass associated with a corresponding target set of parameters;
• and
• a processor (i) to associate and store in a storage device a corresponding fluorescence reading with the identification of each cellular entity in each of the passes and (ii) to use the identification to combine attributes of the corresponding target sets of parameters.

An improved flow cytometry apparatus, of the type having a flow channel coupled to a flow input configured to receive a sample population of cellular entities to be measured, with respect to a target set of parameters, the flow channel being instrumented for obtaining successive fluorescence readings from successive cellular entities passing therethrough, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an OFID reader associated with the flow channel, wherein each cellular entity in the sample population has been tagged with an optical identifier, and the OFID reader is configured to determine an identification of each cellular entity as it is being measured in the flow channel, wherein the OFID reader is configured to operate over a plurality of emission collection paths of which two therefore define an angle of approximately 90 degrees with respect to each other;
• and
• a processor (i) to associate and store in a storage device a corresponding fluorescence reading with the identification of each cellular entity and (ii) to use the identification to combine attributes of the target set of parameters.