Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Nanoinjection into ES cells with a single-cell manipulation supporting robot
The large amount of genomic information that is available today has caused a shift in the way genetic diseases are investigated. Rather than searching for the genes that cause a particular disease, investigators determine what diseases are caused by altering a particular known gene. Disease model cells are just the materials to meet this need. Using microinjection, multiple genes, as well as the drugs to modify them, can be simultaneously, or sequentially, introduced into cells. In comparison with other methods, such as lipofection and electroporation, microinjection is more advantageous because genes can be introduced into the same cell with prescribed timing. Recently, the precision of positionally controlling the injection site has markedly improved because of the development of related micromanipulation technologies. However, microinjection requires additional tasks, such as cell search, cell support if necessary, cell storage, and the microscopic imaging of the responses of target cells, and therefore, microinjection is still tedious and difficult work. In order to facilitate the extra tasks, we developed a single-cell manipulation supporting robot (SMSR). With SMSR, operators can concentrate all of their attention on the microinjection step. The advantage of using the robot was previously demonstrated with rice protoplasts and mouse fibroblasts.
Various model cells will be made by injecting gene alterating agents into ES cells. A supporting robot for single-cell manipulation has been developed to facilitate the complicated procedures of nanoinjection and to establish a high throughput process for the creation of disease model cells. Our research will lead to new gene therapy methods and also to new screening methods of novel medicines.
