Manipulation of Living Biological Cells: Challenges in Automation

Abstract. This paper discusses challenges related to the automatic microinjection of single adherent cells. The discussion covers all necessary components of a capillary pressure microinjection system: a micromanipulator, a microinjector, a microcapillary, a vision system and an environment control system. The other part of the paper describes the research performed on the automatic capillary pressure microinjection at the Tampere University of Technology. The advanced microinjection system includes two micromanipulators, a microinjector, a vision system and a cell cultivation system. The control system comprises of motion control schemes for the micromanipulators to accurately position a microcapillary and to precisely penetrate a cell membrane. A measurement system for the detection of the capillary-membrane contact, capillary clogging and capillary breakage is under development. Results of the penetration evaluation show as high successes rates as 96%. Injection success and cell survival studies are presently on-going.