Method and apparatus for sorting particles
AssigneeCytonome/St, LLC
InventorsSebastian Böhm, John R. Gilbert, Manish Deshpande
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims13
A particle sorting system, comprising:
- a plurality of substantially parallel sorting channels formed on a substrate, and
- a plurality of sorting modules, each sorting module associated with one of said sorting channels, for distributing particles having a first predetermined characteristic to a first outlet of the associated sorting channel and particles not having the first predetermined characteristic to a second outlet of the associated sorting channel, each said sorting module including a sealed gas-filled reservoir disposed in the substrate in communication with the associated sorting channel and an actuator for increasing an internal pressure of the gas-filled reservoir to selectively modify fluid flow through the associated sorting channel to selectively deflect a particle having the first predetermined characteristic into the first outlet of the associated sorting channel.
A particle sorting system, comprising:
- a plurality of substantially parallel sorting channels formed on a substrate, each sorting channel capable of conveying a stream of particles in a carrier fluid,
- a plurality of actuators arranged external to the substrate, each actuator associated with a sorting channel formed on the substrate, for selectively creating a flow disturbance within the associated sorting channel to deflect a selected particle in the stream of particles from the stream of particles;
- and
- a plurality of buffers, each buffer associated with an actuator for absorbing the flow disturbance in the associated sorting channel, wherein each buffer comprises a gas-filled reservoir in fluid communication with the associated sorting channel.
A particle sorting system, comprising:
- a plurality of substantially parallel sorting channels formed on a substrate, and
- a plurality of sorting modules, each sorting module associated with one of said sorting channels, for distributing particles having a first predetermined characteristic to a first outlet of the associated sorting channel and particles not having the first predetermined characteristic to a second outlet of the associated sorting channel, each said sorting module including a gas-filled reservoir formed in the substrate having a movable wall disposed in communication with the associated sorting channel for selectively modifying fluid flow through the associated sorting channel to selectively deflect a particle having the first predetermined characteristic into the first outlet of the associated sorting channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.