A review of recent advances in robotic cell microinjection

Abstract

Cell microinjection is a direct and effective way to transfer external materials into the cell. In the field of modern biomedicine, cell microinjection is very important, no matter in genetics, reproductive health, tumor therapy or others related research directions. Traditional manual cell microinjection has the disadvantages of low efficiency and low survival rate. In contrast, robotic cell microinjection can achieve precise and effective cell microinjection, and can be used in the injection of large quantities of cells. This paper reviews recent advances in robotic cell microinjection technologies. It summarizes the main approaches of key technologies and their advantages and disadvantages, such as cell identification, cell holding, precise positioning platform, cell injection strategy, sensors in cell microinjection, and cell modeling. The conclusion of the investigation is that the robotic cell microinjection has achieved remarkable results and still has great potential for further development. It is expected to be widely used in biomedicine and other fields to realize convenient, fast, and efficient microinjection operations of large number of individual cells.