Injection guidance system for cellular microinjections

Abstract

This paper presents a novel injection guidance system that assists an operator in the microinjection of living adherent cells. The system includes a micromanipulator, an injection system, an impedance measurement device, and control software. The impedance measurement system detects changes in the resistance of an injection capillary during cell injections. From the measurement signal, the software determines parameters that can be used for detecting several injection events such as cell-capillary contact, capillary breakage, and capillary clogging, which are all unavailable in the current microinjection systems. Real cell injection experiments indicate that injection success rates can be significantly increased: from 30–40% without the system to 65% with the system.