Cell sorting is the process of taking cells from an organism and separating them according to their type. The cells are labelled and tagged to identify areas of interest and their effect. They are separated based on differences in cell size, morphology, and surface protein expression.Cell separation, also commonly referred to as cell isolation or cell sorting, is a process to isolate one or more specific cell populations from a heterogeneous mixture of cells. There are a number of cell separation methods available, each with its own pros and cons.
Conducting experiments on isolated cells allows scientists to confidently answer specific research questions by minimizing interference from other cell types within the sample. Isolated cells have many applications within life science research, allowing scientists to:
Conduct molecular analysis of a single cell type, including RNA expression and epigenetic analysis Genetically modify and expand a particular cell type of interest for disease modelling or cell therapy research applications (e.g. T cell therapy research) Directly use purified cells for adoptive cell transfer experiments in various animal models Increase sensitivity of analytical methods (e.g. cell isolation for HLA analysis, cell isolation for FISH analysis) Study the in vitro effects of drug candidates on specific cell populations (e.g. hematotoxicity testing) Fuse enriched plasma cells with myeloma cells to produce hybridomas