Sexed sperm bulk separation systems

Abstract

A process to bulk sex-select sperm which can involve such steps as: obtaining a subject sperm sample such as a collection of cells (1); inducing a sex-based differential alteration process for sperm in the sperm sample; presenting associationally active elements near the sperm within at least some of the sperm sample perhaps such as a fluid combination (4); causing such elements to differentially associate with at least portions of the elements based upon a sperm sex-based differential alteration state; acting on the elements together with their associated sperm through a separation modality (5) to bulk separate the sperm according to their differential sex-based properties. One type of associationally active element is potentially magnetic particles or differentially associatable particles (3) which may even be magnetic particles with inherent zeta potential charges that may associationally act and perhaps bind to an opposite zeta potential or other charges that the sperm may differentially acquire or achieve. This may present a method for magnetic separation of X-bearing and Y-bearing sperm perhaps such as having different charged membranes and perhaps such as after sialic acid activation.

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