Skip to main content

Single-Cell Separation

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Single Cell Technologies

Abstract

Advances in both basic cell biology and point-of-care diagnostic technology led to the need for reliable, accurate, and fast techniques to separate single cells from a heterogeneous mixture. Conventional cell separation techniques, such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS), are very efficient methods. However, these techniques are generally expensive, require bulky equipment, and are not suitable for use in field settings. On the other hand, microfluidic technology matches the performance of existing techniques, while being more portable and suitable for field use. In this chapter, we discuss the working principles and illustrate some applications of various established and emerging microfluidic techniques. The emphasis of this chapter is more on the recent advancement in the field of microfluidics for rare or single-cell separation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Debjani Paul .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Pandey, S., Mehendale, N., Paul, D. (2018). Single-Cell Separation. In: Santra, T., Tseng, FG. (eds) Handbook of Single Cell Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4857-9_6-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4857-9_6-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-4857-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4857-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics