Micromanipulation
Capture and isolation of single cells are prerequisites for understanding these cellular variations. However, efficient single cell capture and isolation are complex tasks for any cell population. Therefore, many technologies for single cell capture and isolation have been developed.
Micromanipulation
Micromanipulation is a method for the isolation of single cells. Depending on the operators, micromanipulation techniques can be divided into manual micromanipulation and robotic micromanipulation. Manual isolation is a simple and robust single cell isolation method. In motorized mechanical stages, micromanipulators use micropipettes and an inverted microscope to pick cells manually.
Micromanipulators are used to isolate embryo cells or live culture cells. For example, the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique (SCNT) is adapted to clone animals like the sheep Dolly. One of its critical steps is to capture the donated egg cell by micromanipulation.
Fig.1 Micromanipulation, or manual cell isolation method, is based on manually picking cells through a micropipette and observing cells via an inverted microscope. (Citri, 2011)
Robotic Micromanipulation
Many new methods have been developed to overcome manual micromanipulation limitations.
- A computer vision-based robotic system was introduced to exploit image processing algorithms and use artificial intelligence to select specific cells.
- An automated single cell isolation system was introduced to isolate fluorescently labeled mammalian cells.
Fig.2 Robotic micromanipulation principles and systems. (Zhang 2018)
Advantages of Micromanipulations in Single Cell Isolation
- Fast and robust
- Living cell
- Require minimal sample preparation.
- High precision rate.
Limitations of Micromanipulations in Single Cell Isolation
- Needs a high skill level.
- Low throughput.
- Often cell-impairing
At Creative Biolabs, we provide customized single cell isolation services by robotic micromanipulation for a better solution. If you have any requirements, please feel free to contact us for further communication about your project.
References
- Citri, A.; et al. Comprehensive qPCR profiling of gene expression in single neuronal cells. Nature Protocols. 2011, 7(1): 118-127.
- Zhang, Z.R.; et al. Robotic micromanipulation: fundamentals and applications. Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous System. 2018, 2(1): 1-23.
