New Developments Towards Automated Blastocyst Microinjections

This paper presents results related to our latest semi-automated blastocyst microinjection system. Here, the improvements made to the microinjection system are described and evaluated. First, after replacing the original piezo-electric kinematic stage by a DC motor-based robot manipulator, experimentation showed that the speed and the precise motion control of pipettes were improved. Second, by introducing an X-Y stage into the system, to manipulate the Petri dish around the microscope's field of view, multiple microinjection speed was improved. Third, by using SSD template matching to track the injection pipette, rather than the cross-correlation template matching algorithm used in the original system, improvements were made to pipette localization. Under human control, this new semi-automated system gives improved microinjection performance metrics compared to previously obtained results. The system is also providing implicit human knowledge of the microinjection process via the human-control interface. It is the encoding of this knowledge that will lead to the first fully automated system. The semi-automated microinjection system is being tested and evaluated in the AMC at UNC-Chapel Hill.

[1]  D. Ganten,et al.  Transgenic animals as models for human disease. , 1995, Clinical and experimental hypertension.

[2]  A. Ashkin,et al.  Optical trapping and manipulation of single cells using infrared laser beams , 1987, Nature.

[3]  M. Capecchi,et al.  Targeted gene replacement. , 1994, Scientific American.

[4]  S Ogawa,et al.  Subzonal insemination of a single mouse spermatozoon with a personal computer‐controlled micromanipulation system , 1992, Molecular reproduction and development.

[5]  Russell H. Taylor,et al.  Simple Biomanipulation Tasks with 'Steady Hand' Cooperative Manipulator , 2003, MICCAI.

[6]  Russell H. Taylor,et al.  Preliminary experiments in robot/human cooperative microinjection , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[7]  Fumihito Arai,et al.  Bio-micromanipulation (new direction for operation improvement) , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems. Innovative Robotics for Real-World Applications. IROS '97.

[8]  Edward Grant,et al.  Semi-automated blastocyst microinjection , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[9]  J. Vienken,et al.  Rotation of cells in an alternating electric field theory and experimental proof , 2005, The Journal of Membrane Biology.

[10]  Edward Grant,et al.  Speeding Up Video Processing for Blastocyst Microinjection , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[11]  Z. Nagy,et al.  Intracytoplasmic sperm injection in the mouse. , 1995, Human reproduction.

[12]  Qiang Ji,et al.  Cell detection and tracking for micromanipulation vision system of cell-operation robot , 2000, Smc 2000 conference proceedings. 2000 ieee international conference on systems, man and cybernetics. 'cybernetics evolving to systems, humans, organizations, and their complex interactions' (cat. no.0.

[13]  K.K. Tan,et al.  Computer controlled piezo micromanipulation system for biomedical applications , 2001 .

[14]  N. Kashiwazaki,et al.  Personal computer-controlled microsurgery of fertilized eggs and early embryos. , 1986, Theriogenology.

[15]  Wei Zhao,et al.  A micro visual servo system for biological cell manipulation: overview and new developments , 2002, 7th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, 2002. ICARCV 2002..

[16]  Fumihito Arai,et al.  Single cell trap on a chip using in-situ microfabrication with photo-crosslinkable resin and thermal gelation , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[17]  Fumihito Arai,et al.  High sensitive micro touch sensor with piezoelectric thin film for micro pipetting works under microscope , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[18]  김병규,et al.  Cellular Force Measurement for Force Reflected Biomanipulation , 2004 .

[19]  Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin,et al.  Active contours for the movement and motility analysis of biological objects , 2000, Proceedings 2000 International Conference on Image Processing (Cat. No.00CH37101).

[20]  Chang-Jin Kim,et al.  Pneumatically driven microcage for micro-objects in biological liquid , 1999, Technical Digest. IEEE International MEMS 99 Conference. Twelfth IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.99CH36291).

[21]  S. Masuda,et al.  Handling biological cells using a fluid integrated circuit , 1990 .

[22]  김병규,et al.  Mechanical Force Response of Single Living Cells using a Microrobotic System , 2004 .

[23]  Mehdi Ammi,et al.  Realistic Visual and Haptic Rendering for Biological-Cell Injection , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

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