LIFE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES: Sorting Cells for Medicine

The basic technology for cell separation hasn't changed much over the past several years. What has changed dramatically is what those cells are being used for: treating patients. As the promise of cell therapy is gradually realized, researchers are searching for cell separation technologies that can solve some basic problems, such as improving cell processing speed and making processing as sterile as possible. Researchers already use a mix of density-gradient separation, magnetic separation, and flow cytometry to prep cells for clinical use but hope for newer chip-based technologies to help advance the field.