Single cell sorting device and method based on image processing and microfluidic printing

Abstract

The invention discloses a single cell sorting device and method based on image processing and ink-jet printing. The single cell sorting device comprises a micro-fluidic chip, an image acquisition device, an image processing and control unit, a displacement actuator, a liquid container and a displacement table, Liquid containing cells flows in a pipeline in the micro-fluidic chip under the drive ofpressure, when the image acquisition device shoots and recognizes a target object needing to be screened, the control unit drives the displacement actuator to generate the action of knocking the chip, micro-droplets containing single cells are printed out from a nozzle of the micro-fluidic chip, and in combination with the displacement table, different target cells are divided into different droplets. The microfluidic cell printing technology provided by the invention is combined with an in-situ image detection technology, so that high-precision cell sorting can be realized.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of biomedical instruments, and in particular relates to a single cell sorting device and method based on image processing and microfluidic printing. Background technique [0002] In biomedical fields such as cancer cell screening, single cell cloning, cell differentiation mechanism research, drug development, and single cell sequencing, it is often necessary to use cell sorting devices to separate single target cells from one or more cell solutions. At present, flow cytometry is the most commonly used single cell sorting device, which uses laser excitation to detect the fluorescent signal inside the stained cells, thereby identifying the cell type, and sorting cells by squeezing charged droplets. However, the use of fluorescent signals to classify cells can reflect limited cell information, and fluorescent staining will cause damage to cells. Therefore, in recent years, cell sorting methods based on image p...

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Problems solved by technology

However, the use of fluorescent signals to classify cells can reflect limited cell information, and fluorescent staining will cause damage to cells

Therefore, in recent years, cell sorting methods based on image processing have been used to detect cell types through non-fluorescent labeling methods: For example, "Cell" (Volume 10, 1016) in 2018 reported the use of image processing to sort seaweed cells and platelets, 2019 "Nature Methods" (Volume 10, 1038) used this method for sorting blood cells, and Chinese patent CN 201780046504.9 "Image-Based Cell Sorting System and Method" also proposed an image-based cell sorting method, but None of them can sort single cells

This is because the cells can only be slightly deflected under the action of the actuator and enter the designated pipeline, resulting in the classification of cells, but not the isolation of single cells

Droplets containing single cells can be produced by printing, such as Chinese patent CN201811382635.7 "A Method for Sorting Single Cells Using a Single Cell Printer", but the existing solutions are based on traditional inkjet printers to generate cell fluids Droplets, the way of capillary force inflow leads to uncontrollable cells in the nozzle, the distribution efficiency is not high, and there is no way to sort a variety of cells, so we propose a single-cell method based on image processing and microfluidic printing. Cell sorting device, which adopts microfluidic printing technology, can directly sort a single target cell from various cells in a flow environment, and adopts a microfluidic chip combined with inkjet printing, which has high precision and low cost , has great application prospects

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