Coverslip with Breakable Sub-coverslips for Cell Culture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coverslips for cell culture are prone to movement and overlap in cell culture dishes, leading to inconsistent growth conditions and experimental deviations, and the current solutions for securing them result in cell suspension flowing into gaps between the coverslip and the culture dish, affecting cell distribution and subsequent analysis.
Innovation Solution
A sheet-shaped coverslip with a coverslip substrate and a sub-coverslip fixed through a breakable connecting part, allowing for seamless attachment to the culture device without gaps, enabling batch experiments and easy detachment for further analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the coverslip is made smooth and flat for easy cell attachment, then cell adhesion is improved, but the coverslip moves and overlaps in the culture dish causing experimental deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The coverslip is divided into a main body and a separate fixing structure (protrusion or groove), allowing the main body to remain smooth for cell adhesion while the fixing structure provides positional stability through mechanical interlocking with the culture dish
Solution Approach 2:
The coverslip's fixing structure (protrusion or groove) nests with the corresponding structure in the culture dish base, creating a hierarchical fitting relationship that secures the coverslip position without affecting the smoothness of the cell culture surface
2Stability of the object's composition
If the coverslip is fixed in a groove on the culture dish bottom to prevent movement, then position stability is improved, but cell suspension flows into the gap between coverslip and culture dish affecting cell distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The fixing structure (protrusion or groove) is extracted from the main body of the coverslip, separating the functions of cell culture surface and mechanical fixation, allowing the main body to remain perfectly smooth while the extracted fixing element handles positioning without interfering with cell suspension distribution
Solution Approach 2:
The protrusion or groove acts as an intermediary mechanical feature that mediates between the coverslip and culture dish, providing secure positioning through mechanical interlocking while maintaining a seamless interface that prevents cell suspension leakage
3Manufacturing precision
If separate preparation and installation of coverslips is performed to ensure proper positioning, then position precision is improved, but the process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fixing structure is integrated into the coverslip manufacturing process itself, combining the positioning function with the coverslip substrate in a single component that can be prepared in batches, eliminating the need for separate installation steps and reducing process complexity
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides consistent cell growth conditions and prevents cell suspension from flowing into gaps, ensuring accurate experimental results and facilitating easy handling and comparison in batch experiments.
Implementation Method 1
a sub-coverslip (2) and at least N hollow part (11), wherein the sub-coverslip (2) is adhered to the hollow part (11) through a breakable connecting part (3)
Data Source
AI summary
A coverslip for cell culture, capable of achieving seamless adhesion between the coverslip for cell culture and a target culture device, so as to solve the technical problem that cell suspension flows into gaps between the coverslip and a culture dish. Moreover, the coverslip for cell culture has exquisite structure, and is easy to carry out batch experiment and comparison. The coverslip is flake-like with upper and lower surfaces being parallel to each other, and comprises: a coverslip substrate (1) and sub-coverslips (2); the coverslip substrate (1) is provided with at least N hollowed-out parts (11); the sub-coverslips (2) are fixedly connected in the hollowed-out parts (11) by means of M fragile connecting pieces (3), wherein both N and M are natural numbers which are not related to each other.