Methods and apparatus for high purity X-chromosome bearing and Y-chromosome bearing populations of spermatozoa

摘要

Isolated non-naturally occurring populations of spermatozoa (15) having high purity and technologies to differentiate spermatozoa (28) based on characteristics such as mass, volume, orientation, or emitted light including methods of analysis and apparatus such as beam shaping optics (30) and detectors (32).

主权项

1. A particle differentiation apparatus, comprising:
a) at least one photomultiplier tube disposed to receive an amount of fluorescent light emitted by each of a plurality of particles, and wherein said amount of fluorescent light emitted varies based upon the relative presence or absence of at least one particle differentiation characteristic of each of said plurality of particles, and wherein said at least one photomultiplier tube converts said amount of fluorescent light emitted by each of said plurality of particles into at least one signal which varies based upon variation in said amount of light emitted by each of said plurality of particles; b) a photomultiplier tube controller; c) a plurality of electrical components for being placed in a circuit of the photomultiplier tube controller and capable of altering an operating voltage of the at least one photomultiplier tube throughout a range of nearly 0 volts to below 400 volts, and wherein one or more of said plurality of electrical components are placed in the circuit of the photomultiplier tube controller causing the photomultiplier tube controller to operate the at least one photomultiplier tube at a specific voltage in the range of nearly 0 volts to below 400 volts; and d) an analyzer configured to analyze said at least one signal of said at least one photomultiplier tube operated at a voltage in said voltage range of nearly 0 volts to below 400 volts to differentiate between particles based upon said at least one particle differentiation characteristic.