Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 116, Issue 30, Pages 14823-14828Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1903406116
Keywords
microrobotics; optoelectronic tweezers; dielectrophoresis; single-cell manipulation; single-cell RNA sequencing
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN 2014-06042, CREATE 482073-16]
- Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program [2017BT01X121]
- University of Toronto's Medicine by Design initiative
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund
- Canada Research Chair (CRC) program
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Microrobotics extends the reach of human-controlled machines to submillimeter dimensions. We introduce a microrobot that relies on optoelectronic tweezers (OET) that is straightforward to manufacture, can take nearly any desirable shape or form, and can be programmed to carry out sophisticated, multiaxis operations. One particularly useful program is a serial combination of load, transport, and deliver, which can be applied to manipulate a wide range of micrometer-dimension payloads. Importantly, microrobots programmed in this manner are much gentler on fragile mammalian cells than conventional OET techniques. The microrobotic system described here was demonstrated to be useful for single-cell isolation, clonal expansion, RNA sequencing, manipulation within enclosed systems, controlling cell-cell interactions, and isolating precious microtissues from heterogeneous mixtures. We propose that the optoelectronic microrobotic system, which can be implemented using a microscope and consumer-grade optical projector, will be useful for a wide range of applications in the life sciences and beyond.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available