Suspended Cell Patterning for Automatic Microrobotic Cell Injection

Type of content
Conference Contributions - Published
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Mechanical Engineering.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2008
Authors
Wang, W.H.
Alkaisi, M.M.
Liu, X.Y.
Sun, Y.
Chase, Geoff
Chen, X.Q.
Hann, C.E.
Abstract

Microinjection of DNA/mRNA/morpholinos is a critical technology for molecular biology and drug discovery. When dealing with suspended cells, state-of-the-art manual injection involves a time-consuming and tedious sample preparation procedure, to accurately align cells. To enable automatic microrobotic cell injection, this paper reports on two inexpensive, reusable, biocompatible, and easy-to-make devices that are capable of patterning a large number of cells in 10-30 seconds. One device is based on negative air pressure and made of polycarbonate using a conventional micro-machining process. It is particularly suitable for cells larger than 100¿m, such as the zebrafish embryo patterning and successful gene 'knock-down' products of the morpholino-injected embryos. The other device is based on dielectrophoresis and suitable for cells smaller than 100¿m, demonstrated by successful trapping of pituitary cells. These devices offer a complete solution for suspended cells in all size spectrums to be prepared up to 10 times faster than manual human preparation. Furthermore, this approach can facilitate high-throughput automatic microrobotic cell injection, for injection applications such as the injection of zebrafish embryos, mouse oocytes/embryos, Drosophila embryos, and other types of suspended cells.

Description
Citation
Wang, W.H., Alkaisi, M.M., Liu, X.Y., Sun, Y., Chase, J.G., Chen, X.Q., Hann, C.E. (2008) Suspended Cell Patterning for Automatic Microrobotic Cell Injection. Beijing, China: IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications 2008 (MESA 2008), 12-15 Oct 2008. 100-105.
Keywords
cell injection, cell patterning, fluidic device, dielectrophoresis, microrobotics
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights