COPAS SORTING PLATFORM

The COPAS technology platform is based on the basic principles of flow cytometry, however, it differs from traditional flow cytometers in two important design areas:

• First, the large-bore fluidics and flow cell can accommodate objects as large as 20 – 1,500 microns, much larger than that of standard flow cytometry instruments used for sorting eukaryotic single cells.


• The second difference is the heart of the COPAS technology. A patented pneumatic sorting mechanism located right after the flow cell, sorts organisms with a puff of air. This sorting method is gentle enough to permit the collection of live biological materials or sensitive chemistries. Most traditional flow cytometers use a large (potentially lethal to small organisms) electrostatic charge sorting method.

Shown: Diagram of the object flow path and COPAS sorting principle.

These engineering design enhancements permit larger objects such as multicellular organisms, small seeds, large cellular aggregates, and combinatorial chemistry beads to be analyzed and dispensed using one of the application specific COPAS systems. COPAS instruments are also much faster than traditional bead pickers because samples are handled as a continuously flowing stream rather than one-at-a-time.

Objects flow from a continuously mixed sample cup to a pre-analysis chamber, where the sample is surrounded by a "sheath" solution to produce a stabilized laminar flow and focus the objects of interest in the center of the flow stream. Objects then pass through the flow cell where four optical parameters are measured for each organism using two lasers.

Top view of standard optics layout

A red diode laser (670 nm) is used to measure both the size and optical density of the objects, and a multi-line argon laser is used to excite user-selected fluorophores. The COPAS instrument then measures the emission signals.

The real time-analysis of these measured parameters is used to make sort decisions, and only those objects meeting the user-set sort criteria are dispensed into microtiter plates or stationary receptacles. Those organisms not meeting the sort criteria are gently sorted by a puff of air to a sample container, where they may be recovered, unharmed and viable.