Automated Microinjection System for High-Throughput Adherent Cell Transfection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing microinjection systems for adherent cells have low throughput, limiting their ability to efficiently transfect large numbers of cells, which is crucial for applications like genome editing and high-throughput transfection.
Innovation Solution
An automated microinjection system equipped with a motorized stage and multiple motorized micromanipulators, which allows for optimized injection sequences and increased throughput by minimizing the total distance traveled by the motorized stage and utilizing multiple micropipettes for simultaneous injection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single micropipette is used for microinjection, then the operation is simple, but the throughput is low
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the injection task into multiple parallel operations by using multiple micropipettes (e.g., two or more) instead of a single micropipette. Each micropipette can independently inject cells, effectively segmenting the work load and increasing throughput without requiring complex coordination mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges multiple micropipettes and motorized micromanipulators into a coordinated system controlled by a single computer. The computer integrates control of multiple injection devices and the motorized stage, optimizing their combined operation to achieve high throughput while maintaining manageable system complexity through software coordination
2Productivity
If the motorized stage travels long distances to visit all cells, then all cells can be injected, but the time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The computer预先 calculates and determines an optimized injection sequence before the actual injection process begins. By pre-planning the path and order of cell visits, the system minimizes the total travel distance of the motorized stage and avoids unnecessary movements during execution, thereby reducing time loss
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically optimizes the injection sequence by considering the real-time positions of multiple micropipettes and the distribution of target cells. The computer adjusts the injection plan to minimize stage travel distance, creating a dynamic optimization strategy that adapts to different cell arrangements and micropipette configurations
Data Source
AI summary
Two or more micropipettes are used to increase a microinjection throughput in an automated system for microinjecting adherent cells on a Petri dish. In the system, a motorized stage carrying the Petri dish sequentially visits the cells according to an optimized injection sequence. The sequence is selected by minimizing a total distance traveled by the motorized stage such that each cell is visited once by one of the micropipettes. Using multiple micropipettes advantageously reduces the minimized total distance over using a single micropipette to thereby increase the throughput. The optimized injection sequence is obtained by solving an equality-generalized traveling salesman problem. Each micropipette is mounted on a motorized micromanipulator. The motorized stage and motorized micromanipulators operate coordinately that each micromanipulator goes down or up during movement of the motorized stage to compensate for unevenness between a focus plane and a moving trajectory of the motorized stage.