| CPC G01N 33/6893 (2013.01) [G01N 21/25 (2013.01); G01N 22/00 (2013.01); G01N 33/5302 (2013.01); G01N 33/5308 (2013.01); G01N 33/57407 (2013.01); G01N 33/582 (2013.01); G01N 15/1433 (2024.01); G01N 21/64 (2013.01); Y02A 50/30 (2018.01)] | 9 Claims |
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1. A method for detecting a rare cell in a fluid sample comprising other cell population, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) partitioning the fluid sample into plurality of aliquots, wherein the rare cell is a fluorescently labelled cell configured to express a fluorescent protein or the rare cell is labeled with a fluorescent detection reagent and wherein the rare cell is a cell present in the fluid sample at a low level comprising less than about 1 part per 103 of the total cell population in the fluid sample;
(b) detecting, with a detector, the presence or absence of a rare cell in each of the plurality of aliquots of the fluid sample, wherein the aliquot comprises a plurality of cells randomly distributed in a three-dimensional detection volume of the detector during detection, wherein the step of detecting the presence or absence of the rare cell comprises the sub-steps of:
(i) illuminating simultaneously the plurality of cells of the aliquot with an external source of electromagnetic radiation; and
(ii) detecting in the illuminated aliquot fluorescence from the plurality of cells including the rare cell; and
(c) ranking each of the plurality of aliquots as a null or nonzero based on the absence or presence respectively of the fluorescence detected in each of the plurality of aliquots, and directing the flow of the aliquot to discard when the aliquot is ranked as null and directing the flow to collection when the aliquot is ranked as nonzero.
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