Validation of a New High-Throughput Cell Separation Method for Downstream Molecular Applications

The development of new cell separation technologies has continued as the demand for sorted cell populations for molecular testing increases. The goal is to increase through-put potential and reduce the manual handling of samples required whilst ensuring that cells are sorted efficiently with high purity. Herein, we review two affinity-based methods utilising magnetic beads to isolate cells: one is currently used within a clinical laboratory as standard of care and the other is a newly developed larger platform using the same principle. Cells were sorted simultaneously on both platforms and assessments were made of the purity, cell recovery, and hands-on time, indicating that the new larger platform is sufficient for use in a clinical laboratory as it not only increased cell sorting capacity and reduced manual processing but was also able to isolate cells with sufficient purity levels for downstream molecular testing.