Neutrophils serve as the primary responders of the innate immune system, but their extreme sensitivity to iatrogenic activation makes maintaining their quiescent phenotype for ex vivo study technically challenging. Traditional isolation methods, such as immunomagnetic isolation or density-gradient centrifugation, and conventional cell sorting (FACS) often inadvertently activate these cells, compromising experimental results. Additionally, detecting neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation (NETosis) is limited by current assays: ELISA lacks specificity for NETs, fluorescence microscopy has low throughput, and flow cytometry lacks morphological insight. The VisionSort platform addresses these challenges by enabling the high-purity, label-free isolation of neutrophils and the accurate detection of NETosis using AI-powered phenotypic analysis.
