Patent ID: 6994218

Claim:
An apparatus for sorting cells, comprising: a cell alignment portion applying a process to a cell-suspending fluid in which a great number of cells are suspended and arraying the cells with a spacing between each cell; a cell information detecting portion applying a detecting process to the cells arrayed by the cell alignment portion and detecting information on the cells; a cell sorting portion for sorting the cells based upon the information detected by the cell information detecting portion; a first passage included in the cell alignment portion so as to let the cell-suspending fluid flow; and a second passage included in the cell alignment portion, intersecting with the first passage so as to communicate with the first passage, letting a splitting fluid flow so as to split the flow of the cell-suspending fluid in the first passage, and forming a great number of small cell-containing liquid drops, the apparatus further comprising: a cell outlet port defined at a downstream portion of the second passage; and a gas jet portion for applying gas to the cell-containing liquid drop and for dropping the cell-containing liquid drop which has reached the cell outlet port out of the cell outlet port by a pressure of the gas applied to the cell-containing liquid drop.