Patent ID: 8318445

Claim:
A method for immobilizing and detecting a cell in a sample comprising: (a) contacting a sample with a magnetic antibody having a specific affinity for a particular epitope on a first cell that may be present in the sample; (b) contacting the sample with a first labeled antibody having a specific affinity for a particular epitope on the cell; (c) introducing an aliquot of the sample into a chamber; (d) applying a magnetic field to the chamber to attract the magnetic antibody to a surface of the chamber; (e) washing the chamber to remove the portion of the sample that is not immobilized on the surface of the chamber by binding the magnetic antibody; (f) detecting and enumerating the cells that are immobilized on the surface of the chamber by binding the magnetic antibody and labeled by binding the labeled antibody; (g) determining whether a statistically significant number of the labeled cells are immobilized on the surface of the chamber for detecting and enumerating; (h) repeating steps (c) to (g) until a statistically significant number of the labeled cells are immobilized on the surface of the chamber; and (i) detecting and enumerating the immobilized and labeled cells.