Novel micro gripping, probing, and sensing devices for single-cell surgery

Abstract

Abstract-Several novel devices under development in our laboratories to ultimately realize a micro robotic system for single cell nano-scale probing, injection, imaging and surgery is described in this paper. Thus far, we have 1) developed MEMS polymer grippers that can be actuated under water with very large deflection and are capable of gripping 500um embryonic cells in water with ~2V input; 2) developed a probe-etching technique to controllably shape fiber probes into various tip geometries, i.e., fibers with initial diameter of 125um were sharpened into tips with angles ranging from <2.7 -9.7 o and with nano-scale tip diameters of <1um; 3) developed a novel PVDF force sensing system with resolution in the sub-uN range for applications in bio-manipulation, bio-injection, and potentially single cell surgery. Details of these technologies are discussed in this paper.

Micro-scale composite compliant mechanisms for evaluating the bulk stiffness of MCF-7 cells

“…The actuation can be electro-thermal [5], electro-magnetic [6], electrostatic [7,8], piezoelectric [9], etc. When these actuators are integrated with the gripper and are immersed in aqueous medium in which live cells are tested, their behavior might change, and consequently they require special care.…”

Selective disruption of vascular endothelium of zebrafish embryos by ultrafast laser microsurgical treatment

“…Ultrafast laser pulses are known to be useful in many biological applications such as micro-manipulation and dissection of nano-scale and micro-scale structures in live cells and other biological materials [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There are two main advantages in using femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser outputs for the tiny ablation of live samples.…”

Micro-Force sensor by active control of a comb-drive

“…Most are based on a passive and indirect measurement, i.e through the deformation or displacement of a sensitive part with a calibrated stiffness. Most designs are based on elastic microstructures such as microcantilevers [5], piezoresistive sensors using the variation of resistance on a piezoelectric layerb [6], capacitive sensors based on the variation between two armatures over distance [7], direct piezoelectric sensors through the correlation between their deformation and produced current [8] Nevertheless, the most widespread approach is the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) [9] [10]. The deflection of a cantilever of known characteristics is measured by a two or four quadrants photodectectors [11] or by interferometry [12]).…”