Robotic Cell Rotation Based on Optimal Poking Direction

It is essential to have three-dimensional orientation of cells under a microscope for biological manipulation. Conventional manual cell manipulation is highly dependent on the operator’s experience. It has some problems of low repeatability, low efficiency, and contamination. The current popular robotic method uses an injection micropipette to rotate cells. However, the optimal poking direction of the injection micropipette has not been established. In this paper, a strategy of robotic cell rotation based on optimal poking direction is proposed to move the specific structure of the cell to the desired orientation. First, analysis of the force applied to the cell during rotation was done to find the optimal poking direction, where we had the biggest moment of force. Then, the moving trajectory of the injection micropipette was designed to exert rotation force based on optimal poking direction. Finally, the strategy was applied to oocyte rotation in nuclear transfer. Experimental results show that the average completion time was up to 23.6 s and the success rate was 93.3% when the moving speed of the injection micropipette was 100 μm/s, which demonstrates that our strategy could overcome slippage effectively and with high efficiency.

[1]  J. Voldman,et al.  Dielectrophoretic registration of living cells to a microelectrode array. , 2004, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[2]  Yu Sun,et al.  A Fully Automated Robotic System for Microinjection of Zebrafish Embryos , 2007, PloS one.

[3]  Jerry W. Shan,et al.  Hydrodynamically controlled cell rotation in an electroporation microchip to circumferentially deliver molecules into single cells , 2016 .

[4]  Kuo-Kang Liu,et al.  Optical tweezers for single cells , 2008, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

[5]  Chien Chern Cheah,et al.  Simple PD Control Scheme for Robotic Manipulation of Biological Cell , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

[6]  Haibo Huang,et al.  Robotic Cell Injection System With Position and Force Control: Toward Automatic Batch Biomanipulation , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[7]  Yunjiang Lou,et al.  Flocking Multiple Microparticles With Automatically Controlled Optical Tweezers: Solutions and Experiments , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[8]  Ki-Ho Han,et al.  An electrorotation technique for measuring the dielectric properties of cells with simultaneous use of negative quadrupolar dielectrophoresis and electrorotation. , 2013, The Analyst.

[9]  Graeme Whyte,et al.  Optofluidic rotation of living cells for single‐cell tomography , 2015, Journal of biophotonics.

[10]  Paul Gaynor,et al.  AC electric field induced dipole-based on-chip 3D cell rotation. , 2014, Lab on a chip.

[11]  Kishan Dholakia,et al.  Optoelectronic tweezers , 2005, Nature materials.

[12]  Yaxiaer Yalikun,et al.  Hydrodynamic vertical rotation method for a single cell in an open space , 2016 .

[13]  Byeong-chun Lee,et al.  Nuclear-mitochondrial incompatibility in interorder rhesus monkey–cow embryos derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer , 2016, Primates.

[14]  B. Reubinoff,et al.  Nuclear Treatment and Cell Cycle Synchronization for the Purpose of Mammalian and Primate Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). , 2017, Methods in molecular biology.

[15]  Yu Sun,et al.  Three-Dimensional Rotation of Mouse Embryos , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[16]  Ivo Rendina,et al.  A Microfluidic Approach for Inducing Cell Rotation by Means of Hydrodynamic Forces , 2016, Sensors.

[17]  Wenfeng Liang,et al.  Self-Rotation of Cells in an Irrotational AC E-Field in an Opto-Electrokinetics Chip , 2013, PloS one.

[18]  S. Mitalipov,et al.  Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer , 2013, Cell.

[19]  Bradley J. Nelson,et al.  Biological Cell Injection Using an Autonomous MicroRobotic System , 2002, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[20]  Xin Zhao,et al.  Robotic Cell Rotation Based on the Minimum Rotation Force , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.

[21]  Win Tun Latt,et al.  Three-Dimensional Cell Rotation With Fluidic Flow-Controlled Cell Manipulating Device , 2016, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.