Rare Cell Isolation

Isolation of rare subpopulations of cells with frequencies of less than 1% presents a unique challenge. Several areas of research rely on isolation of rare cells, such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from human blood, fetal cells from maternal samples, or low-abundance GFP-positive transfected cells within a pool. In these scenarios, researchers have very limited options for cell isolation, and most commonly rely on traditional cell sorters. However, these instruments are not optimized for single cell isolation.

Namocell’s microfluidics-based single cell dispensers circumvent these challenges and allow for efficient and gentle isolation of rare cells. Namocell’s proprietary technology enables sorting and dispensing in a single step within a microfluidic cell cartridge where cells are exposed to less than 2 psi of pressure. The near-zero dead volume of Namocell’s cartridges enables sorting of small samples with minimal sample loss, allowing one to start with as few as 100 cells. Learn how we perform rare cell isolation as a sequential, two-step process with a target frequency of less than 0.01%.