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US 2019/0292567 A1Published application
Cell microinjection system with force feedback
AssigneeUniversity of Macau
InventorQingsong XU
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AssigneeUniversity of Macau
InventorQingsong XU
Estimating the term…
A novel piezo-driven cell injection system with force feedback overcomes the unsatisfied force interaction between the pipette needle and embryos in conventional position control. By integrating semiconductor strain-gage sensors for detecting the cell penetration force and the micropipette relative position in real time, the developed cell microinjection system features high operation speed, confident success rate, and high survival rate. The effectiveness of the developed cell injection system is experimentally verified by penetrating zebrafish embryos. The injection of 100 embryos are conducted with separate position control and force control. Results indicate that the force control enables a survival rate of 86%, which is higher than the survival rate of 82% produced by the position control in the same control environment. The experimental results quantitatively demonstrate the superiority of force control over conventional position control for the first time.
A microinjection system comprising a micro injector and a control device comprising a linear actuator which controls the movement of the injector towards and from a pierceable microstructure target and position and force strain gauge sensors configured to provide position and force information to a controller which is operatively linked to said linear actuator.
A method for microinjection of a substance into a pierceable microstructure which comprises positioning a mocroinjector relative to a pierceable microstructure by use of a charge coupled device camera using a computer vision algorithm and then effecting puncture of said pierceable microstructure by the micro injector and injecting a substance into said microstructure wherein motion of said microinjector is controlled by a control device comprising a linear actuator which controls the movement of the injector towards and from said pierceable microstructure target and position and force strain gauge sensors configured to provide position and force information to a controller which is operatively linked to said linear actuator whereby sufficient force is applied to the microinjector to effect piercing of the wall of the pierceable microstructure.
A control device suitable for use with an injector for injecting biological material into a pierceable microstructure said control device comprising a linear actuator which controls the movement of the injector towards and from a pierceable microstructure target and position and force strain gauge sensors configured to provide position and force information to a controller which is operatively linked to said linear actuator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.