Patent ID: 8071054

Claim:
A fluidic sorting device comprising: (a) at least one inlet channel configured to provide separate, substantially parallel streams of (i) a sample comprising a target species, non target species, and magnetic particles having an affinity for the target species in the sample, and (ii) a buffer that is substantially free of the sample; (b) a sorting station fluidly coupled to said at least one inlet and located in a path of the sample stream, the sorting station comprising a first wall and a second wall opposing said first wall; (c) a magnetic field gradient generator for interacting with an external magnetic field provided by one or more magnets, when the one or more magnets are positioned outside the sorting station and proximate the first wall and/or the second wall, to produce a magnetic field gradient in the sorting station; said magnetic field gradient generator comprising one or more magnetizable elements on and/or in the first wall and arranged to guide the magnetic particles from the sample stream into the buffer stream along a path produced at least in part by a resulting force vector that is substantially parallel to the one or more magnetizable elements, wherein said resulting force vector is neither parallel nor perpendicular to the direction of the sample stream flow, and said path approximates the shape and orientation of the one or more magnetizable elements; and (d) at least one outlet channel configured to receive the buffer stream with the magnetic particles and a waste stream containing said sample at least partially depleted of the target species.