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US 2023/0265385 A1Published application
Methods for high throughput sperm sorting
AssigneeInguran, LLC
InventorsJohnathan Charles Sharpe, Nemanya Sedoglavich, Blair Morad, Donald Francis Perrault, JR.
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to methods for sorting sperm cells in a microfluidic chip. In particular, various steps are incorporated to align and orienting sperm in flow channels, as well as, to determining sperm orientation and measure relative DNA content for analysis and/or sorting.
Claims27
A sperm sorting system comprising:
- a microfluidic chip comprising a generally planar substrate having a flow channel;
- a sheath inlet for introducing sheath fluid into the flow channel,
- a sample inlet located downstream of the sheath inlet for introducing a sample containing sperm cells into the flow channel
- a fluid focusing region in the flow channel located down stream of the of the sample inlet, wherein the fluid focusing region comprises a vertical fluid focusing geometry having a decreasing channel height,
- a sperm orienting region located downstream of the fluid focusing region in the flow channel and sized to orient sperm cells in the plane of the substrate, wherein the sperm orienting region comprises a vertically tapering region that at least partially overlaps a laterally tapering region and wherein the sperm orienting region is between 200 microns and 5000 microns in length;
- an inspection region located downstream of the sperm orienting region for illuminating the sperm cells with electromagnetic radiation from an electromagnetic radiation source;
- and
- a re-expansion region located downstream of the inspection region
5 more elements
A microfluidic chip for sorting sperm comprising:
- a generally planar substrate;
- a flow channel having a height and a width formed in the substrate;
- a fluid focusing region in the flow channel comprising one or more of a lateral fluid focusing region and a vertical fluid focusing region;
- and
- a sperm orienting region downstream of the fluid focusing region, wherein the sperm orienting region is sized to orient sperm cells in the plane of the substrate and comprises a region of decreasing flow channel height and a region of decreasing flow channel width
2 more elements
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.