Patent ID: 8460744

Claim:
A method of automatically adsorptive isolating light-absorbing targets from a sample surface, comprising: staining the sample with a reagent that localizes specifically at targeted material in the sample such that the sample includes both stained and unstained surface regions, placing a flexible transfer film in contact with the sample surface that includes stained surface regions; simultaneously irradiating the sample surface and applying a substantially constant pressure on the transfer film to maintain thermal contact between the transfer film and the sample surface during transient heating of the stained surface regions, wherein the irradiating of the sample surface comprises substantially uniformly irradiating both stained and unstained surface regions simultaneously with light energy that activates the reagent, wherein the activated reagent produces a change in the transfer film to selectively adhere the absorptive targets to the transfer film; and selectively transferring the adhered absorptive targets to the transfer film as the transfer film is removed from the sample surface.