Patent ID: 7943384

Claim:
A flow cytometry system for sorting a mixture of particles including particles having a characteristic A and particles having a characteristic B comprising: a fluid delivery system for delivering a fluid containing said particles; a flow cytometry apparatus for receiving said fluid, forming the fluid into a stream and using flow cytometry to classify the particles according to said characteristics; a sorting system in communication with the flow cytometry apparatus for sorting the particles according to said classification and according to a sorting strategy to provide at least one population containing desired particles, wherein the desired particles are selected from the group of particles having either characteristic A or characteristic B and; a control responsive to information received from the flow cytometry apparatus for: controlling the sorting system to vary its sorting strategy as a function of at least one of the following: (1) the purity of said at least one population with respect to either characteristic A particles or characteristic B particles; and (2) the quantity of characteristic A particles or characteristic B particles in said at least one so sulation relative to the total suantit of characteristic A sarticles or characteristic B particles in said stream; and/or controlling the fluid delivery system to vary the rate at which fluid is delivered as a function of at least one of the following: (1) the purity of said at least one population with respect to either characteristic A particles or characteristic B particles; and (2) the quantity of characteristic A particles or characteristic B particles in said at least one population relative to the total quantity of characteristic A particles or characteristic B particles in said stream.