Methods, compositions, and kits for detecting rare cells

摘要

Disclosed herein are methods for identifying rare cells containing particular markers and/or alleles from biological samples that have not been substantially pre-processed (e.g., unprocessed whole blood). The methods described herein provide a system for digital enrichment of target cells from a biological sample and detection of such target cells, thereby allowing accurate and efficient detection and/or enumeration of such cells in the sample.