Cell Injection Microrobot Development and Evaluation in Microfluidic Chip

摘要

We propose an innovative design of microrobot, which can achieve donor cell suction, delivery and injection in a mammalian oocyte on microfluidic chip. The microrobot body contains a hollow space that produces suction and ejection forces for injection of cell nuclei using a nozzle at the tip of the robot. Specifically, a controller changes the hollow volume by balancing the magnetic and elastic forces of the membrane, and along with motion of stages in the XY plane. A glass capillary attached at the tip of the robot contains the nozzle is able to absorb and inject cell nuclei. The microrobot provides three degrees of freedom and generates micronewton forces. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed microrobot through an experiment of absorption and ejection of 20 μm particles from the nozzle using magnetic control in a microfluidic chip.