Micromanipulation System Capable of Simultaneously Presenting High-Resolution and Large Field-of-View Images in Real-Time

Abstract

Microinjection technology is widely used in biotechnological processes such as gene manipulation and microinsemination. Generally, microinjection is performed under an optical microscope while viewing the video of the targets in real-time. In the microinjection process, multiple oocytes must be placed in the same droplet, for which the injection must be performed multiple times. Furthermore, the target must be observed at different magnifications during injection and the oocyte transfer operation. Hence, the operators are required to change the magnification and light intensity repeatedly. These tasks are complicated and are a burden for the operators. Thus, the accuracy, reproducibility, and productivity of microinjection depend on the operator’s skill level. In this study, to reduce the burden on the operator and simplify the operation of microinjection, we propose a micromanipulation system that enables both wide-range and high-resolution video presentation with free viewpoint selection. The proposed micromanipulation system is based on a view-expansion microscope system with simultaneous multi-view imaging using a galvanometer mirror and a high-speed vision system. We verify the effectiveness of the proposed system by evaluating the resolution of images presented to the operator and through the experiments involving moving microbeads performed by inexperienced subjects. The experimental results indicate that our micromanipulation system streamlines the task of micromanipulation by eliminating the need to change the objective lens.

Keywords

• Micromanipulation system
• view-expansion microscope
• macro-micro interaction