Patent ID: 8642306

Claim:
A living cell sorting method, comprising the steps of: forming a sample liquid flow including a group of living cells including target living cells, the living cells flowing in a line and kept away from each other; irradiating measurement light toward the sample liquid flow; obtaining light information from either of scattered light or fluorescence which is emitted by each of the living cells in the sample liquid flow when each of the living cells receives irradiation of the measurement light; determining, based on the light information obtained in the obtaining step, whether each of the living cells corresponding to the light information is among either the target living cells or not, and killing each of the living cells other than the target living cells, in response to a result of the determining step, by generating a pulsed electric field at a portion of the sample liquid flow corresponding to each of the living cells other than the target living cells, the pulsed electric field being formed between a pair of first electrodes to which pulsed voltage is applied, wherein the position of the first electrodes is disposed downstream of an irradiation position of the measurement light in the flow direction, and wherein a length along the flow direction of the sample liquid that is exposed to the pulsed electric field is controlled by a pair of second electrodes provided outside the pair of first electrodes.