Patent ID: 7351589

Claim:
A method of processing cells comprising the steps of: a) providing a suspension of cells in a liquid medium, b) contacting a group of beads with said suspension, each of said beads being coated with a binding substance or being magnetic such that each bead is specifically adapted to bind to at least one of said cells, c) incubating said beads with said suspension for a period of time effective to permit said cells to bind to said beads to form bead-cell complexes, each bead-cell complex comprising a bead and a cell, d) separating said bead-cell complexes from said suspension by filtration through a filter, wherein said filter permits effective separation of said bead-cell complexes from said suspension, and transferring to a glass slide said bead-cell complexes separated by said filtration, and e) examining said separated bead-cell complexes and characterizing said cells.