What are the applications of cell sorting?

Cell sorting is a process that isolates one or more target cell populations from a heterogeneous biological sample. The resulting homologous cell populations have significant applications in research and as therapeutics. 

Applications of cell sorting include but are not limited to: 

• Isolating WBC from tissue
• Isolating T cells, B cells, and other immune cells from peripheral blood
• Genetically modifying and expanding a specific target cell type for cell therapy research applications such as T cell therapy research or disease modeling
• Fusing enriched plasma cells with myeloma cells to create hybridomas 
• Capturing CTCs or circulating tumor cells from blood
• Increasing the sensitivity of analytical techniques such as cell isolation for FISH analysis or cell isolation of HLA analysis
• Preparing a sample of blood separated from plasma
• Conducting molecular analysis of a single cell type, including epigenetic analysis and RNA expression
• Studying the in vitro effects of potential drug candidates on specific cell populations
• Separating pathogenic bacteria from food
• Using purified cells for adoptive cell transfer experiments directly in different animal models