Hierarchical Sorter for High Purity Stem Cell Selection

描述(申请人提供)：有相当多的证据表明，造血干细胞和间充质干细胞移植在治疗包括淋巴瘤、神经母细胞瘤和多发性骨髓瘤在内的多种癌症中的应用。此外，HSC/MSC疗法可用于重建免疫系统，再生受损组织，并为许多自身免疫性疾病(如糖尿病、类风湿性关节炎和系统性红斑狼疮)提供修复受损细胞的基因。移植治疗成功应用的主要障碍之一是在采集的样本中难以获得干细胞的纯样本。这会导致大量残留的肿瘤细胞重新注入患者体内，在某些情况下，会导致疾病复发。因此，获取纯干细胞样本的能力是非常可取的。 这项研究专门致力于开发一种用于干细胞采集的高纯度细胞。细胞分选器使用分级多阶段策略，每个分选阶段对前一分选的结果进行操作，从而对分选的样本进行重新分类以验证其准确性。这项研究的总体目标是一种分选器，通过使用多个分选器来产生纯度大于99.9%的样品。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is considerable evidence for the application of transplantation of Hematopoietic and Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the treatment of a wide range of cancers including lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and multiple myeloma. In addition, HSC/MSC therapies can be applied to reconstitute the immune system, regenerate damaged tissues, and deliver genes to repair damaged cells for many auto-immune diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and system lupus erythematosis. One of the major roadblocks in the successful application of transplant treatments is the difficulty in obtaining a pure sample of stem cells in the harvested sample. This results in reinfusion of a larger number of residual tumor cells into the patient than is desirable, resulting, in some cases, in relapse of the disease. The ability to acquire a pure stem cell sample is therefore highly desirable. This research is focussed specifically on the development of a high-purity cell sorted for stem cell harvesting. The cell sorter uses a hierarchical multistage strategy with each sorting stage operating on the results of the previous sort thus reintorraging a sorted sample to verify its accuracy. The overall objective of this research is a sorter that results in a sample with greater than 99.9% purity through the use of multiple sorts.